


The Wrong Sort

by CaffeinatedFlumadiddle



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: AU, Angst, Angst and Humor, Disclaimer, Draco is going to be super lit when I'm done with him, Draco is just calling it out here, Drarry, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Endgame Drarry, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Ginny is still awesome, Gryffindor Draco Malfoy, Gryffindor/Slytherin Inter-House Relationships, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, I also have already written this sorta so updates are going to be pretty consistent, I got it all covered, I just need to break apart Draco’s self-image, I'm sorry these tags are such a mess, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Morally Ambiguous Dumbledore, Other tags I forgot to add, Piece by Piece, Slow Burn, Worry not, also mentioned in regards to Sirius, but hey, but yeah, don't mind me, forget JKR, gryffindor!draco, here we are, hurray, i am your god now, i think that's all, it's gonna be a lot of work but through angst and humor we will prevail, just sliding that one in there, nothing graphic though, oh and Sirius is going to live because HE GODDAMN DESERVED IT, oh yeah, or i will die trying to make him awesome, there will be no Weasley bashing here, this is gonna be long so buckle up fam, this won’t be an ‘all Slytherins are bad’ fic either, which is just canon Dumbledore, which is kinda canon anyways bc Harry was definitely in an abusive household
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-09
Updated: 2020-12-29
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:40:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 289,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26587504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaffeinatedFlumadiddle/pseuds/CaffeinatedFlumadiddle
Summary: In which Draco Malfoy is sorted into Gryffindor and everything kind of goes to Hell from there… but hey. At least there’s a chance he won’t grow up to be an awful person. Alternatively titled ‘Draco Malfoy and the Worst Goddamn Seven Years of His Life’
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter, Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley, they'll be some non-endgame stuff too, those are endgame
Comments: 1110
Kudos: 2484
Collections: Best of the Best, Canon Doesn't Spark Joy, Creative Chaos Discord Recs, Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble, Harry Potter - The Best (by Peftasteria), Real Good Shit, best fanfics ive read





	1. Year One (In Which the Sorting Hat Made a Terrible, Awful Mistake)

**Author's Note:**

> Listen, am I aware that canon Draco was a bully, magical racist, and essentially the equivalent to a Nazi right down to his Adolf-loving blonde hair? Yep. Do I think there was a HUGE missed opportunity to ruin his life and force him to go through major character development in order to make him a complex, redeemable character with access to part of the HP world we don’t normally delve into? Fuck yeah I do. And given that JKR has been pretty much disowned by her entire fanbase I’m going to take this opportunity to try and make his character super rad over the course of his seven years at Hogwarts. Idk if I’m gonna succeed, but I’ll try. Also, Drarry seems like it could be cool.
> 
>  **Also** if you are waiting for me to post more Merlin content... worry not. This was just prewritten so it was easier to post this weekly while I'm adjusting to that new job and stuff lmao. You have not been forgotten.
> 
> Quick disclaimer: I'm gonna try to have this up every week, but it might not be exactly every Thursday/Friday bc ya know. Editing. Speaking of which, shout out to my beta. Check out her tumblr: [forty2-bottlesofrum](https://forty2-bottlesofrum.tumblr.com/)

Hogwarts wasn’t as grand as Draco had expected. Perhaps his father was right to have wanted him in Durmstrang. He supposed it was too late now. Hogwarts was where his parents and grandparents went. If it was good enough for them, then it should be good enough for him… given that Dumbledore didn’t muddy their reputation more than he already has. 

“Abbott, Hannah.” 

Really, this felt a little unnecessary. Draco could sort these people without the damn hat. For example, Abbott was a Hufflepuff. She looked like the human equivalent of a jigglypuff. So was Susan Bones over there. Her aunt may be in the ministry, but Draco didn’t see a shred of ambition in her. 

Sure enough, to Hufflepuff both went.

The line moved forward. It was almost amusing to see these trembling failures stumble up to McGonagall to get cast to the side. 

“Crabbe, Vincent.”

Oh, right. Crabbe and Goyle were both people his father mentioned he should get acquainted with. Draco had sat with them on the train and felt like they would make good, lower ranking friends. It was a fun little game pureblood families liked to play with one another. Children of Death Eaters tended to try to exert themselves over others. You could come out on top, as equals, or on the bottom. Crabbe seemed like someone he could easily bully into submission. Of course, there were those like Pansy and Blaise where that would be less of an option given he had grown up with them.

“SLYTHERIN!” 

Alrighty, Crabbe was on the friendship roster then. Goyle followed shortly after that. 

“Malfoy, Draco.” 

Smirking, he stepped up front. His father had said this would be an important moment, so he tried his best to soak it in. The eyes all falling on him - surely they had heard his name many times prior to this moment - absolute silence following as his presence alone commanded the room. 

McGonagall seemed less than impressed by his slow walk to the stool. She looked pointedly at the chair for him to sit. Well then. Trying not to seem too put out by her lack of respect on the matter, he put himself on the rickety stool (really, this thing seemed ancient… Why not an armchair? Surely, school funds weren’t that dismissal). 

The last thing he saw before the hat dropped over his eyes was Harry Potter’s face. He smirked a little, waiting for the hat to call out his house so quickly that he had already moved to get off when he realized it hadn’t spoken yet. Instantly he settled back down, a bit startled by the lag in the happy announcement. His mother had assured him with a reputation and bloodline like his it would only take a few moments.  
  
_Well, well, well. A Malfoy._ A voice whispered in his head and Draco bit his lip, glad his face was obscured for the moment.  
  
_What’s taking so long?_ He asked and there were a few beats of silence as he felt someone fiddling around inside his thoughts. A soft laugh echoed in his mind before he got an answer.  
  
_Interesting. Fascinating, really. Where shall I place you?_  
  
_Slytherin!_ Draco told it, a bit of desperation suddenly overwhelming him. Why was there even a discussion? Where else could he possibly go? His breath seemed stuck in his chest, making him forget how to breathe. _Slytherin obviously, you stupid piece of cloth!_  
  
 _I do see many Slytherin qualities in you, surely._ The hat answered and Draco heard some whispers start up around him. _But I see something else. Something that is barely there, but could be nurtured into an incredible strength._  
  
Draco didn’t want strength, he wanted to be heading towards the green clad table. He wanted his reputation to be intact and the power that went along with his name and house.  
  
“GRYFFINDOR!”  
  
Silence.  
  
Draco swallowed, feeling the weight of the hat slip off of him and the light assault his eyes. As his eyes adjusted, he could see the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables giving hesitant applause along with some younger students at the Gryffindor table who weren’t familiar with who he was.  
  
“Up you get, Mr. Malfoy,” McGonagall told him and he looked back at her, eyes wide and surely panicked. Her expression remained stern as she gestured to the group of red barbarians. Surely she didn’t expect him to…? Realizing he had no choice unless he wanted to cause a scene, Draco slipped off the stool.  
  
He looked over at the Slytherin table and tried not to react to the harsh gazes and raised eyebrows as he perched himself at the end of the table. A redheaded boy in glasses (Weasley, he was calling it now) greeted him with a tentative smile. Nobody else said anything.  
  
The rest of the sorting went by with blood rushing through his ears. More people sat down at the Gryffindor table, and Draco sought the only comfort he knew at the front of the Hall – but Severus didn’t even look at him.  
  
Potter went up to the stool, and Draco found himself praying he was a Hufflepuff or a Ravenclaw. He wasn’t sure what would be worse – being in the same house as the boy or watching him go off to the house Draco _should_ be in.  
  
“GRYFFINDOR!”  
  
His luck seemed to be worsening by the second. Potter’s atrocious hair bounded towards the table, his eyes bright and wide as he looked wildly around while the Hall erupted with applause, the idiots around him screaming in glee.  
  
“We got Potter! We got Potter!” A pair of ginger twins sang (honestly, were those Weasleys as well? How many of them were there?). Potter flushed, sitting diagonal from Draco. Neither of them spoke.  
  
A few more people were sorted. Draco wanted to scream whenever someone else was sorted into Slytherin. A few of his childhood friends offered him curious looks as they took their seats at the far table.  
  
“Are you alright?” A girl asked him curiously and Draco recognized her from the train. The muggle girl who was hanging around Potter earlier.  
  
“Fine,” he answered her stiffly and she tilted her head at him.  
  
“You look rather sick,” she observed with pursed lips. Draco quickly schooled his expression, ignoring her. “Don’t worry, I’m rather nervous too,” she assured him, “But I’ve read enough to be prepared – have you?” She asked and Draco internally screamed. When he didn’t respond, she narrowed her gaze.  
  
“Why do you keep looking over there?” She asked, jutting her chin at the Slytherin table and Draco felt something snap.  
  
“Stop talking to me, you stupid mudblood,” he hissed to her lowly and the girl blinked. Her eyes widened as hurt swept over her ridiculously messy features before hardening into something else.  
  
She didn’t acknowledge him again.  
  
Draco couldn’t pay attention to the headmaster’s speech even if he tried. He was already figuring out how he would fix this disaster. He would have to get resorted. Explain that the hat was obviously playing some sort of cruel joke.  
  
“Wow,” Potter breathed when food appeared on the table, and Draco rolled his eyes, shoving plates out of the way as he slowly began conducting a letter.  
  
_Mother,_ he wrote and hesitated. Part of him didn’t want to explain the situation, but he knew his parents may need to get involved if he hoped to fix this. Sighing, he put his quill back to the paper.  
  
 _I have just arrived at Hogwarts. It is indeed as beautiful as you have told me. The train ride here was pleasant, and so far I am proud to say I remembered to pack everything I might need. You can give father those ten galleons I heard you betting._  
  
 _As wonderful as everything is, I have encountered a slight problem. I’m sure Severus will mention it to you soon. The sorting hat has appeared to have made a mistake. For some reason it has accidentally placed me with the Gryffindors. I think we all know this is ridiculous, and I shall be inquiring about a resorting, of course. I only wanted to inform you as a courtesy in case the headmaster gives me difficulty in trying to switch to Slytherin._  
  
 _Hope all is well. Tell father I say hello._  
  
 _Yours,_  
 _Draco_  
  
He scribbled the ending and reread it a few times before stuffing it in an envelope. He would take it to the owlery later. The redhead with the glasses (Percy was his name...?) was shouting instructions to everyone while simultaneously nudging a plate of food towards Draco. He took a slice of ham, if only to get him to shut up.  
  
It was only for a night. He could handle a night.

* * *

“Mr. Malfoy, I’m sorry but there isn’t anything to be done,” McGonagall informed him over her spectacles. Draco was sitting in her office, trying not to stuff a biscuit in his mouth from the nerves.  
  
“But perhaps the headmaster-”  
  
“I’ve spoken to Professor Dumbledore, and he has the same sentiments I have. The hat chose this house for you, and it is where you will remain.”  
  
Draco felt a stab of humiliation when tears pricked at his eyes and shook his head stubbornly. His heart felt like it might burst in trepidation. McGonagall’s face softened a bit as she looked down to see his hands shaking.  
  
“Would you like me to speak to your parents?” She asked gently and Draco couldn’t help it. He started crying.  
  
He hadn’t cried since he was eight years old, and while it might still be generally acceptable for eleven-year-olds to cry, he hadn’t really been held to the general standard. He tried desperately to stop, but the tears just kept going along with the underlying humiliation of the entire situation. He had one job upon entering this school and somehow mucked it up horribly.  
  
McGonagall waited until he finished before looking down at him with a stern expression that Draco was pretty sure would never leave her face and put a hand on his shoulder.  
  
“Mr. Malfoy. I know you have grown up hearing very differently, but I want you to understand that the houses of this school do not define you. You are here to get an education, and no matter what house you are in, I will ensure you obtain that,” she said and waited until Draco met her gaze before continuing. “I am not asking you to be thrilled in where you are sorted, but I am asking you to accept it and learn how to adapt. Understand?” She asked him firmly and Draco choked back another sob before nodding.  
  
“Yes, professor,” he whispered and left her office without another word.

* * *

Draco was both looking forward to and simultaneously dreading his first potions class. On one hand, he had always loved potions, and Severus had taught him from a very young age to be rather adept at it. But on the other hand… Well. Severus hadn’t even looked at him since before he was sorted.  
  
He tried to tell himself the man was busy. He had classes to teach and things to look at morosely… but deep down Draco knew he was making excuses. Just like he was making excuses on why his parents hadn’t owled him back or why Blaise Zabini didn’t wave back at him yesterday despite having known each other for years.  
  
Still. He tried to remember McGonagall's speech yesterday and walked into the dungeons with a sudden wave of spite overwhelming him. If Severus didn’t want to acknowledge him, fine. He couldn’t ignore him completely as a student. The first couple minutes when the class started, Draco waited to be noticed. Eventually, his name came up on roll call and Draco waited.  
  
“Draco Malfoy.”  
  
“Present,” he answered and that was it. He wasn’t sure what he was expecting. Severus wasn’t really the smiling type, but usually he got some sort of reaction whether it be a nod or a gesture. Now he only got a check by his name before moving on.  
  
“Ah,” he said after a few more names, “If it isn’t Mr. Potter… Our newest… celebrity,” he breathed out and Draco scowled. Potter was sitting next to Weasley, his black curls hanging in his eyes as he scribbled something down. Draco crossed his arms as the boy looked up, eyes wide as he flushed at being addressed. “Potter!” Severus spoke, his voice lashing out after his usual ‘bottle fame’ speech was finished. “What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?”

Granger’s hand launched in the air so quickly, Draco was quite certain it could have broken if something attempted to interfere with its course.  
  
Severus ignored her.  
  
“Tut, tut - fame clearly isn’t everything,” said Severus as he perched himself against his desk, “Let’s try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?” He asked and again, Granger’s hand remained in the air. Draco scowled. These were ridiculous questions to ask in someone's first class, and while admittedly, he did get a pleasure out of Potter looking like an idiot, he was aiming for Severus to acknowledge _him_.  
  
If Granger’s example was anything to go by, raising his hand certainly wouldn’t work.  
  
“I don’t know, sir,” Potter spoke evenly and his gaze met their professor’s with a fire to them, “Why don’t you ask Hermione? I think she knows the answer.”  
  
A snicker fell over the room, and Draco saw a scowl flicker over already twisted features.

“Sit down,” he snapped at Granger. She flushed, putting her hand down and burying her face in her textbook. “And for your information, Potter, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death. A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat, and it will save you from most poisons. As for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite. Well? Why aren’t you all copying that down?” Severus snapped. “And one point from Gryffindor House for your cheek, Potter,” he sneered. A groan fell over their side of the room, but Draco was still more fixated on Granger.

It was rather curious she had known all the answers being a muggleborn with no prior magical experience. Unable to help himself, he leaned in closer to her and whispered.  
  
“Did you really know?” He asked and her face hardened for a moment.  
  
“Yes,” she answered shortly, and Draco tilted his head at her before flicking open his own book to the right page. Snape went by, criticizing each student’s work as he walked by. He said nothing when he passed Draco, merely glancing at his potion and then walking away again to heckle Potter some more.  
  
Why was _Potter_ getting more attention from _his_ godfather than he was? Draco was willing to take criticism now – anything, _something_. Unable to stand it, the words lashed out of his mouth before he could consider the consequences.  
  
“I’ll help him,” he snapped, shoving his completed potion to the side and marching to Potter’s table. Granger gaped after him, having just finished her work as well.  
  
“I don’t recall asking for anyone to help him,” Severus said coolly and Draco gave an internal whoop of triumph.  
  
“Well, you aren’t,” Draco said evenly, “Granger and I have finished if you want to check those,” he added and Severus’ eyes flashed.  
  
“Detention,” he hissed and Draco felt a smile tug at his lips. Mission complete. Sighing, he turned away and almost yelped at the abysmal state of Potter’s potion. He didn’t really want to help the idiot, but the entire class’ attention was now directed at him. Severus’ gaze bore into his back.  
  
“Right. Start stirring the other way,” he muttered, thrusting a metal spoon at the boy. Potter sputtered as he caught it, watching with an open mouth as Draco started slicing woodworm. “Well?” He said when the other boy didn’t move, “Watching it doesn’t really do anything, Scarhead.”  
  
“Sorry,” he grumbled and started stirring counter-clockwise.  
  
The rest of class consisted of Draco turning Potter’s brown, sludgy potion into something green and with a much better consistency. They barely exchanged a word, Draco occasionally correcting him on whatever he was doing wrong or telling Weasley to stop gaping at him (honestly, he looked like an unfortunately shaped fish). When they were finally done, Draco turned to go, but felt a hand grab at his sleeve.  
  
“Thank you,” Potter said cautiously and Draco tugged his sleeve away.  
  
“Whatever,” he muttered and went back to where Granger was sitting, gaze calculating.  
  
“You know Professor Snape.”  
  
“So do you.”  
  
“I mean before Hogwarts,” she clarified and Draco ignored her. She didn’t say anything more, instead stuffing her books into her bag before pausing to look at him. For a second Draco was sure she was going to say more – her mouth parted slightly and eyes drilled into him. After a second she only snapped it shut and turned away again, heading to their next class with a stoic expression in her eyes.

Things were, unfortunately, not getting much better for Draco. He had been so looking forward to his first flying lesson… In fact, he had been sure it might be the only thing that might make him feel better about this whole thing. 

Naturally, that had to be ruined too.

“It’s our favorite Gryffindor!” 

Draco really shouldn’t have to put up with this. 

“Montague,” he said as he smiled tightly, “Sorry, I didn’t notice you there. With the hair and state of your robes I thought you must be another Weasley,” he said and gave a feigned look of concern, “Is everything alright at home? I have some extra money if your parents got themselves arrested again.”

Montague’s face went red - completing the Weasley look in his opinion. Granted, Montague’s hair was more orange than the dark red of the Weasleys, but he figured it worked all the same. From behind him, he heard Weasley himself say some unsavory words under his breath. 

“Shouldn’t you be offering help to your housemates?” Pansy jumped in. Draco paused. Montague he had expected to take advantage of his fall from grace, but… Pansy and him had been friends for years. He stared at her, momentarily too stunned to respond. “We wouldn’t want to accept anything from filthy blood traitors like you and Weasley over there,” she sneered.

What was this? Pansy looked at him - the barest glimmer of an apology in her eyes before it disappeared under a mask of disgust. Draco faltered again, grasping blindly at his wits. 

“Speaking of blood traitors,” Montague continued, confidence apparently regained now that Pansy had taken up the mantle, “Look what Longbottom left behind,” he said and leaned over to snatch the stupid rememberall that was uselessly whirling red since Longbottom had been dragged to the infirmary without it. Draco sighed. He wished the idiot had just taken Draco down with him.

“Give it back.”

Great. There was Potter with his bloody hero complex. Rolling his eyes, he stepped back. Montague’s eyes lit up, perhaps sensing an easy target, as Potter stepped forward to hold out his hand - as if Montague would honestly hand the thing over. Draco sure wouldn’t. Not without making him work for it. 

“Oh, well, if mighty Potter says so… maybe I should,” Montague clicked his tongue. He put a hand over his heart, “After all he is our great wizarding savior!”

Draco snorted before realizing he probably shouldn’t be laughing given he was standing with a bunch of glowering Gryffindors. Whoops. 

Now… to be perfectly clear, the following events meant _nothing_. Absolutely nothing. Draco was pretty sure he reacted on instinct alone, which meant that his actions were not to be taken seriously. If he had actually thought the scenario through, then obviously things would have turned out differently. 

However… tragically, the events went as followed:

1\. Montague threw the stupid rememberall after some more bickering  
2\. Potter flew off to catch the damn thing  
3\. Pansy threw a rock after him

Normally, throwing rocks wouldn’t be a cause for alarm, but Draco knew for a fact Pansy had been privy to some early education in her household, which included a momentum charm. The rock would probably break Potter’s stupid face… a hilarious scenario indeed, but it would also increase Pansy’s status among other Slytherins, and Draco just couldn’t allow that.

So what did he do? 

He got on his broom and somehow sped past the rock (and on these ridiculously cheap brooms too! He really was talented), and pushed Potter out of the way right before the rock shattered the window behind them. 

There were pros and cons to this. Cons included getting caught by a furious McGonagall. At this point... Draco wasn’t surprised. This entire school experience was a bit of a bust. 

“And _you_ -” McGonagall said, whirling around after she had finished yelling at Potter.

“Professor,” Potter interjected quickly, “Malfoy helped me,” he said. Draco stared. While this was… well, it was technically true, he wasn’t sure why this idiot was pointing it out. “I was going to get hit by, um, that,” he said, pointing to the rock on the floor of McGonagall's office. Ah, so it had been her window they had broken. Naturally. “He pushed me out of the way.”

“Yes, Potter. I was there,” McGonagall said flatly. Potter gave a small pout and a hint of a smile touched her lips, “I was going to say that it was quite possibly the most Gryffindor thing I have ever seen.”

...seriously? Draco stared at her, trying and failing his best to utter his offense. She was going to throw that in his face? _Seriously?_

“Have you considered being a chaser, Mr. Malfoy?”

_Seriously?_

As it turned out, pros included both him and Harry somehow getting on the quidditch team despite being first years. Draco was a little suspicious that she was both impressed by their skills and also feeling a bit softer over Draco’s predicament and Potter’s lack of brains. He wasn’t sure how he felt about being on Gryffindor’s quidditch team… he would file it away for a different mental breakdown. 

“Hey,” Potter said as they walked back to the common room, “Um… thank you. For that,” he said and held out his hand. “Don’t get me wrong, you still are quite, um… awful,” he decided, “But maybe I was a bit quick in my judgement before. Glad you’re sorted with us and aren’t stuck with… you know, the wrong sort,” he added lightly. Draco raised an eyebrow.

Oh no. No way. He wasn’t doing this. So Potter wanted to be friends on his terms? Typical. If he wanted to be friends, he should have taken his hand before they got sorted and pledged his loyalty then. Bloody idiot. 

“I think I can tell who the wrong sort are for myself, thanks,” Draco told him coolly and turned to march to bed.

* * *

Not even Ether stayed. The Eagle owl only dropped the thin looking letter onto Draco’s lap before flapping away again, as if he too, was upset with Draco. Sighing, he glanced around the Hall, hoping this wasn’t a howler before tearing open the paper.  
  
_Draco,_  
  
 _Darling, I must say I’m rather shocked. Your father has written to the headmaster only to be rebuffed – he is currently appealing to the ministry. Please, understand… We are only very surprised by this turn of events, and your father in particular is unsure of how to proceed. As you well know a house says a lot about a person and… well, I like to think we raised someone who is not littered with Gryffindor qualities._  
  
 _If that is who you are, I accept that Draco. I do. But please understand your father cannot have you back home as a Gryffindor. I will try to speak to him – I’m sure if the ministry gets involved, we can fix this, darling. Until that point it would be best not to contact him… or me._  
  
 _I’ll write to you when I can. I love you very much._  
  
 _Yours,_  
  
 _Mother_  
  
Draco stared. He felt as though a frog was getting caught in his throat as students around him took a seat.  
  
“Is it true you told off Snape, Draco!? That’s amazing!” Someone said while other people marveled at the story, which another student was relaying in great detail. Stifling a yell of frustration, Draco ripped the paper in half, silencing his classmates as he stormed off.  
  
He was truly alone then.  
  
Classes went by in a blur. Draco hadn’t made the effort to talk to anyone or try to make a single friend. Generally, he found himself paired up with Granger, since they were the only ones who could keep up with one another (though she somehow always was a few steps ahead of him) and she too, was friendless. She hadn’t spoken to him other than to communicate their assignments for the most part, letting Draco know the mudblood comment was still on her mind.  
  
Detention with Severus didn’t go as planned either. While he had been hoping it would be a good time to confront his godfather, it ended up as a bust. He had simply pawned his detention off to McGonagall, who made him write lines for ten minutes before letting him go.  
  
“Here,” Granger said one morning and handed Draco a plate of food, “Sit down, please. I need to talk to you.”  
  
“I’d rather not.”  
  
“I didn’t ask.”  
  
Draco raised an eyebrow at her, jutting out his chin as he crossed his arms over his chest and looked down.  
  
“I don’t have to do what you say, Granger,” he told her coolly and she put the plate down carefully, dark eyes meeting his own.  
  
“I looked up your family, Draco Malfoy. You’re a pureblood from one of the most prestigious families of all time. Your mother, Narcissa, was a member of the Black family who are famous for their ties to You-Know-Who, your Aunt Bellatrix in particular. Your father, Lucius Malfoy, is influential in every part of the magical community and leads several organizations which eliminate wizard contact with muggles,” she informed him, grabbing a piece of toast and smothering it with jam, “All of them, as far as I’ve seen, have been in Slytherin. I reckon they aren’t too happy with their only son being sorted into Gryffindor, and there is the very real possibility they’ll disown you.”  
  
“How dare you-”  
  
“And outside that community, I doubt you have many friends,” she continued, “Which is why I’ve decided to overlook you being an absolute moron for now in favor of helping you because I think you are actually quite smart,” she finished and Draco took a long breath.  
  
“I don’t need your help,” he growled, “I doubt you could anyway. What could a mudblood do?” He snapped and she showed no reaction, only calmly putting down her knife.  
  
“You’re all alone,” she informed him, “And if you don’t make friends with anybody else in this house, you’ll need at least one ally… and… I need one too,” she sighed. Draco wanted to scream. He would not be friends with a muggleborn. Every second he spent in this stupid house he strayed farther from his dignity. As if reading his mind, Granger shrugged.  
  
“Perhaps that’s why you weren’t sorted in Slytherin,” she said idly, “You don’t know how to take advantage of a situation, clearly.”  
  
Draco flopped down next to her.  
  
“You are really quite annoying,” he sighed, but accepted the previously offered plate of eggs and bacon, “It is beneath me to be allies with you,” he added and she shrugged.  
  
“I saw you rip that letter up. I don’t think you really have a lot of options.”  
  
“I can’t believe you are blackmailing me to be your friend,” he grumbled and she smiled a bit at him.  
  
“It isn’t really blackmailing. It is just… using reason to show you the best route to take,” she said, “But you can’t call me a mudblood.”  
  
“Why? Are you not?” Draco asked, shoveling food into his mouth.  
  
“It’s _offensive_ ,” she emphasized, “I am a muggleborn, but I’m more clever than you – a pureblood - so I hardly see why it matters.”  
  
“Culture, mainly,” Draco told her and took a sip of pumpkin juice, “And bloodlines, obviously,” he added. Granger put her chin in her hand and sighed.  
  
“It is going to take me a long time to convince you of how wrong you are,” she said. Draco only smirked.  
  
It did take a long time. They debated the matter through all of the breakfast, lunch, and dinner. During breaks between classes and after they finished their work. It continued while they were in the common room, only stopping to scribble down bits of their homework before going on again.  
  
They eventually came to a tentative agreement which was as followed: Draco would not call muggleborns mudbloods anymore because he understood they had no control over their heritage. Hermione (very warily) would acknowledge there was something to be said about magical beings that grew up around magical culture that she could maybe understand why people would think it should be preserved (though she made sure Draco was absolutely clear that even that didn’t warrant purebloods’ treatment towards muggles and muggleborns). Quite honestly, Draco wasn’t completely sold on half of what she said, but that might have to do with him not being a good listener and the fact she was wrong. He figured he would at least not call her a mudblood because she seemed better than most muggleborns anyway.   
  
“We should do this properly,” Hermione said the next morning and stuck out her hand. “Hi. I’m Hermione Jean Granger,” she introduced and Draco snorted, taking her hand.  
  
“Draco Lucius Malfoy.”  
  
“Why do pureblood names sound so strange?”  
  
“Coming from someone named _Hermione?”_ Draco demanded and the girl laughed, picking up her books. It was rather strange to be friends with someone like her, he decided. Draco had pictured his friends to be people who listened to him and did what they were supposed to without being asked twice.  
  
Hermione didn’t quite fit into that. She argued with him, told him he was wrong an awful lot, and never did what she was told. He was pretty sure that made her a bad friend, but he wasn’t sure he minded all the time.  
  
From that point on Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger were sort of friends. He wouldn’t allow her the benefits of being full friends until she passed her trial run, of course. Mother had always told him not to jump into any sort of relationship too quickly. Get reasonably attached after they proved their worth.  
  
While they continued to get on quite well, Draco couldn’t say the same with his other classmates. Hermione was often fond of correcting everyone in hopes it would make her more well liked… It did not. Which, in turn, led to Draco coming to her defense more and more often.  
  
“It’s no wonder she hasn’t got any friends!” Weasley snarled after charms class and Draco felt Hermione stiffen by his side. Immediately, Draco made a noise of reproach and plunged his hand into his robes.  
  
“Why? Because she’s smarter than you?” He demanded and both Weasley and Potter spun around. “Maybe if your parents had less kids, they could have actually taught you something before you came to school,” he added in, watching with pleasure as Weasley’s face began to match the color of his hair.  
  
“Draco, that’s _rude,”_ Hermione sighed, swiping at her eyes.  
  
“You better watch _your_ mouth about my family, Malfoy!” Weasley growled, but Draco only leveled him a hard look.  
  
“You better watch your mouth about Hermione,” he spat back, “I bet you think just because you have Harry bloody Potter hanging off your pinky, you are just so popular. You still look like a weasel to me,” he sniffed and Hermione tugged on his sleeve more forcefully.  
  
“Draco,” she said firmly and he turned to her, eyes widening at the amount of tears in her eyes. Her lip trembled slightly before letting go of him and shoving past Weasley and Potter, head down.  
  
“I didn’t mean-” Weasley said, face still a little flushed, but Draco’s sneer cut him off.  
  
“No need to be rude because she’s better than you,” he snipped and marched past them (making sure to shove Potter as he did) after Hermione.  
  
It took him a few minutes to locate her, but eventually Draco found himself in front of the girl’s bathroom, shuffling a little awkwardly as he heard her wailing inside. It reminded him of the enchanted whales his mother had brought him to see on his seventh birthday – loud and high pitched.  
  
“Er, Hermione?” He called out and ran a hand through his hair. He had half a mind to go to the Great Hall and eat. It wouldn’t solve anything for him to just sit here – what was he supposed to do? A small voice in the back of his mind warned him that Hermione might not take too kindly to that.  
  
“W-what?” Came a sniffled response and Draco sighed, picking at the red on his robes. It was such an obnoxious color, red. He didn’t find it flattering on himself at all – bringing out his paleness in the worst ways possible.  
  
“Do you want to go eat?” He asked hesitantly, “I can trick Longbottom into throwing some rice pudding at Weasley and Potter,” he offered, sure it would do the trick. After all, revenge was the best medicine. Hermione made another whale sound.  
  
“No!” She shrieked and Draco had half a mind to clap his hands over his ears, “I don’t want you to be _mean_. Just go away!” She snapped, and Draco felt a bit of relief at that statement. She really had no excuse to be angry if he left now. He took a few steps away before pausing. A sudden memory of his mother and father sprang to his mind. When he had come back from playing with a rather large knot on his head, his mother had been furious ( _“Why weren’t you watching him Lucius!?”_ ) and promptly screamed at his father to leave. When he did… she had only gotten angrier.  
  
Draco turned back around. Was Hermione expecting him to go _into_ the girls’ toilets? Surely she knew he couldn’t! Perhaps muggles didn’t have different toilets…? Sighing, he shuffled inside.  
  
As it turned out, they looked pretty similar – girl and boys’ toilets. The girls’ were only missing the urinals. Taking a few more steps inside, he walked to the one stall in use and knocked.  
  
“I’m not quite sure what to do,” he admitted. He really didn’t. Normally his friends rarely required _upkeep_ as this one seemed to. Perhaps it was a muggleborn thing.  
  
“Oh, Draco,” he heard a choked sigh and the door opened to reveal a rather blotchy Hermione. “You really are awful at this,” she grumbled and grabbed his hand so he fell to the ground with her. Wincing at how these disgusting floors were going to ruin his robes, he let her lean on his shoulder. He really hoped she didn’t end up crying all over him.  
  
“Why do you care?” He asked her after a few moments of silence, “They are clearly idiots. Potter didn’t even want to be my friend.”  
  
Hermione made another choking sound, which could have either been a sob or a laugh – he really wasn’t sure.  
  
“I’m not very good at making friends,” she said softly, “Never was. I want to be helpful, but…” she trailed off and Draco furrowed his brows.  
  
“Helpful…? Why?” He asked, genuinely curious, “What do you get out of being _helpful?”_  
  
“Friends.”  
  
“Clearly not.”  
  
“I can’t stand you,” she grumbled, gently hitting his leg. “I just mean I want to give them a reason to like me.”  
  
“I suppose… that makes sense,” he told her carefully. There really weren’t a whole lot of reasons to like Hermione, he supposed. Her parents were muggles, she had no prestige or power at eleven-years-old… She only had her intelligence. Draco was quite certain it would get her far in the wizarding world, but maybe others weren’t able to see that quite yet.  
  
“But you’re friends with me,” he offered, “And really, you can’t do much better,” he said, “If my parents don’t disown me, I mean,” he added and she pushed back to stare at him. Her eyes were red from crying, tear tracks stuck to her cheeks. For a moment she opened her mouth to reply, but promptly snapped it shut, eyes widening.  
  
“Don’t move,” she whispered and Draco followed her gaze.  
  
This wouldn’t have happened if he was Slytherin, he was sure of it.  
  
Draco had seen trolls before. His father took him to troll farms all the time as a child, but never had he been this close. The thing was grumbling lowly, its skin glittering with slime as he dragged a large club sluggishly behind it.  
  
Draco’s heart sped up as it took another step closer, and Hermione’s hand latched tightly onto his arm. He could feel her shaking slightly, and honestly he wasn’t much better as he sat frozen in place.  
  
What a pair of Gryffindors they were after all.  
  
Out of nowhere the troll slammed the club down, breaking the stall next to them. Hermione screamed, clasping a hand over her mouth. Draco tried to reach for his wand, but his hands were trembling too much to get a firm grasp. The troll made a deep noise in the back of its throat, slowly turning to them and raising the club again.  
  
“HEY!” Someone yelled and before Draco could react, a rat went flying through the air.  
  
“Harry,” Hermione choked next to him, and Draco realized the black monstrosity was actually Potter’s hair. “Come on,” she whispered to him, and they both scrambled out of the way as Potter continued to try and ride the troll like a wild horse. Draco looked around for something to help him, but the boy seemed to have decided to take matters into his own hands as he shoved his wand up the troll’s nose.  
  
_“Wingardium Leviosa!”_ Weasley shouted and the club went flying through the air, narrowly missing Potter and hitting the troll on the back of the head. They both went down, Draco lunging out to grab Potter before he was crushed by what could have been the troll version of his Aunt Bellatrix.  
  
“Ew,” Weasley said, looking at Potter’s snot covered wand.  
  
“Are you two alright?” Potter breathed out, wiping the sticky substance on his robes. Draco made a face and took a step away from him before nodding.  
  
“Thank you,” Hermione breathed out, “We would have died-”  
  
“Well, I don’t know about that-” Draco intervened, and Weasley had the audacity to raise his hand in order to silence him.  
  
“Malfoy. Just say thank you.”  
  
“No.”  
  
“Anyone ever told you that you’re a git?” Came the grumbled response. Before Draco could answer with a question of his own, furious sounding footsteps found them. McGonagall walked in, hand over her heart, along with several other professors, whose expressions ranged from alarmed to merely bored.  
  
_“What_ is the meaning of this!?” McGonagall gasped, her eyes darting from the four of them to the unconscious troll behind them. Draco turned slowly to assess the situation.  
  
“Well. I can assure you it is _entirely_ Weasley and Potter’s fault,” he nodded and Hermione sighed.  
  
“No, it isn’t,” she glowered at him and turned to the group of adults before them. Draco merely shrugged, sticking his tongue out subtly at the other two boys, who were shooting him outraged looks. “I’m sorry, professor…. I wanted to see the troll. I had read all about them and set out to find it – Draco was trying to stop me,” she gestured to him. “Harry and Ron went after us and knocked the troll out.”  
  
_“How_ pray tell?” The creepy turban loon (Squirrel or something…? Quirrell!) asked, his hands trembling slightly as he tried to gesture around him.  
  
“Harry jumped on the troll’s back and stuck his wand up its nose while Ron used a levitating spell to hit it with that,” she pointed to the club on the floor. “I am so sorry,” she whispered. Draco said nothing, not quite understanding why she was covering for them.  
  
“Well,” McGonagall sniffed, “Miss. Granger, I must say I am incredibly disappointed in you. There is no need for me to inform you this may be the most outrageous stunt a group from my own house has performed!” That was a lie. Draco had got a good look at those Weasley twins and was certain she had encountered something more outrageous. “Five points from Gryffindor,” she informed her and Hermione’s face fell. “And for you three,” she spun around to the boys and paused. “Five points apiece… for sheer dumb luck,” she scowled.  
  
“No way!” Potter breathed from beside him.  
  
“What did Malfoy do?” Weasley muttered from the other side from him.  
  
Draco paid them no mind. He was more preoccupied with Severus, who was looking at him with a flicker of emotion. Cold gray eyes scanned him up and down, and Draco felt a surge of glee at the realization he was checking to make sure he was alright. Who knew it would take a ten-foot troll to regain his godfather’s attention?  
  
The walk back to the common room was mostly silent, led by McGonagall, who was still muttering under her breath. When they were finally inside, it was Potter who spoke first.  
  
“That troll sort of looked like you, Malfoy.”  
  
Weasley snorted while Hermione crossed her arms and glared. Draco was unfazed.  
  
“I’m beginning to see why you need those ridiculous glasses, Potter. Your eyesight must be worse than I feared,” he said and the other boy smiled a bit. Draco frowned at him, not really expecting that reaction.  
  
“Want to sit with us at potions tomorrow?” He asked and Hermione brightened.  
  
“Okay!”  
  
_“No!”_ Draco almost shouted and Ron gave a furious nod in agreement.  
  
“Only Hermione,” he said and the girl in question scowled.  
  
“Draco too.”  
  
“He doesn’t even want to come!” Ron argued, and Draco felt his lips thin as he looked at Hermione. He got the feeling she was about to fail her trial run as his friend.  
  
“We can all sit together,” she insisted stubbornly, “Draco is my friend and wouldn’t have been in danger tonight if he didn’t try to help me after you were mean,” she snapped at them and Potter looked at his shoes.  
  
“Sorry,” he apologized and Weasley deflated slightly.  
  
“Fine. But no insulting my family,” he added with a fierce glare, and Draco gave a long, suffering sigh. He had no idea this much negotiation would be involved in his Hogwarts days.  
  
“With robes like _that_ I think I’ll have plenty of other material to work with,” he said coolly, “What are those anyway? House elf clothes?”  
  
“I don’t think I can do this,” Ron turned to Potter earnestly, and Hermione looked at the ceiling as Draco shrugged.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so yeah. See ya next week for the rest of year 1 lol


	2. Year One (In Which Draco Saves the Day Against His Will)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome back! Thank you all for the support ❤️❤️❤️ I've been recovering from some sickness the last few days so everyone's comments were a highlight of being stuck in bed lol

_Dearest Draco,_  
  
_I hope all is well at school. Thank you for not owling me and your father. I know this must have been a trying time, and I do appreciate how well you are handling this. Unfortunately, I come with more bad news. With Christmas approaching, your father thinks it would be best if you stayed at school this year. We booked a trip to France for the holidays and-_  
  
Draco didn’t finish. He simply put the letter down and stared. He knew exactly what this was – his father’s first steps to disowning him. No doubt his mother was fighting him on it, trying to buy Draco more time for… something. He wasn’t sure what else he could do. He even rejected McGonagall’s offer for him to join the quidditch team. He was regretting it a bit now - especially after watching Potter literally swallow the snitch during his first game - but honestly. He couldn’t imagine fully embracing this house so much he would actively try to help them win house points. As it was, he never answered any questions in class to avoid such scandal. 

Only… now things were a bit different. Draco wasn’t _fond_ of his house by any means, but if he was here, he might as well try to make a respectable lot out of them. Maybe he would ask McGonagall if he could still be on the quidditch team… or just join next season. He had ended up refusing her original offer in hopes to not form any attachments to someplace he had hoped to be in temporarily, but… If he was going to be disowned, then it didn’t really matter if he lost all sense of propriety, right?   
  
“Your parents?” Hermione asked and Draco pushed the letter to her wordlessly. Potter– no, _Harry_ (Hermione said they shouldn’t call each other by their surnames) offered him a treacle tart.  
  
“I guess I’m staying for Christmas,” he grumbled and both Harry and Ron sat up.  
  
“Us too!” Ron grinned, “It’ll be fun! If you can refrain from being a git, that is,” he added thoughtfully, and Draco stabbed at his eggs with a shrug.  
  
“Maybe if you stop wearing such distressing clothes or using appalling table manners, I would consider it.”  
  
“I have good table manners,” Harry volunteered and demonstrated by eating with a pinky out.  
  
“I would be impressed if I wasn’t so distracted by that thing on your head. I’m getting you a hairbrush for Christmas,” he informed the other boy flatly, “It is honestly a hazard at this point, Pot- Harry.”  
  
“No, it isn’t,” Harry pouted and his eyes flicked up to the professors’ table, “Do the teachers go home too?” He asked and Draco followed his gaze to Snape.  
  
“Sometimes. Severus always comes by for Christmas,” he said and Harry frowned. He and Severus still didn’t see eye to eye – and quite frankly Draco was in the same boat. Motivated purely by spite and rage, Draco had spent the better portion of his weekends tutoring his fellow classmates in potions so that Severus would have absolutely no complaints on their work. Hermione had happily aided him in this adventure as Ron and Harry groaned and moaned until Draco threatened to use their fingers as ingredients.  
  
“I can’t believe he’s your godfather,” Ron muttered, “Have you ever seen him smile?”  
  
“Once. After you burned your hand in class.”  
  
“One day I’m going to smother you in your sleep.”  
  
“Why haven’t you done so already?” Harry asked curiously, “He sleeps right next to you.”  
  
“He probably would if I could ever fall asleep with all your snoring,” Draco shot and Harry slapped a hand over his heart.  
  
“Draco Malfoy,” he fake-gasped, “I am so sorry. I can’t believe I kept you, a pureblood extraordinaire, from your beauty sleep! Is that why you’ve been looking so much like a toad lately?” He asked innocently, and Draco jutted out his chin as he stole another treacle tart from his plate.  
  
“Your parents are dead,” he grumbled and Harry rolled his eyes.  
  
“Still as ineffective in upsetting me as the first time you said it,” he informed him and Draco raised an eyebrow. Usually it was quite successful in upsetting Harry. Hermione and Ron were forever telling him off for it. “Anyway, about Flamel-”  
  
“What about Flamel?” Draco interrupted. Hermione hit his arm. “What?”

“Nicolas Flamel,” she said shortly, “The wizard we’ve been looking for.”

Draco blinked. 

“Oh, I know who that is,” he said and the group all spun around to stare at him, “What?” He asked again. Ron threw up his hands.

“Why didn’t you say so?! You just let Hermione drag us to the library for no reason?” He said, voice steadily rising with more and more outrage. Draco paused.

“I thought we were doing homework,” he said and shrugged, “That’s what I’ve been doing at least. To be fair, I don’t really listen to you all that often,” he admitted and went back to his food. “Anyway, Flamel is the alchemist who made the sorcerer’s stone. Why do you care about that?”

“I cannot stand him. Hermione, let me hit him-”

* * *

There was a dog guarding the sorcerer’s stone apparently. Turns out a lot of what his new friends discussed were highly dangerous, possibly illegal activities. He was right not to listen. It was ridiculous.

“I bet it’s Snape,” Harry said firmly. Draco sighed. He was pretty sure his godfather was not stealing the sorcerer’s stone or whatever, but his words of reason had fallen on deaf ears. Even Hermione seemed semi-convinced by this. If the only reasonable person of this group was swayed, then he was most definitely fighting a losing battle. “His leg was hurt - from the dog, probably,” he nodded as if he knew what he was talking about.

“I don’t think I’ve ever met someone so dumb,” Draco frowned at him. Hermione fixed him with a firm look. Draco rolled his eyes, “I mean, um, I don’t think you’re right… because you’re not,” he said. Ron rubbed his temple. Draco wasn’t sure why. He certainly wasn’t being the tiring one of the group. “I know Severus. He may not be nice, but he doesn’t want immortality to bring back the Dark Lord,” he snorted. 

“He was a Death Eater wasn’t he?” Ron pointed out. Draco shrugged.

“Yeah, so?” He asked. The others stared at him, “Being a Death Eater was once very respectable,” he pointed out. Harry looked at him for a long time before opening and closing his mouth. “But now it isn’t so… I’m sure he isn’t a Death Eater.” 

“What kind of bogus reasoning is that?” Ron asked and pointed at Draco, “Stop talking nonsense. I want to teach Harry chess,” he grumbled as he pulled out the board to set between them. Draco paused. Ron was actually pretty talented at the game, which was surprising because he was a total idiot. Part of Draco suspected he may be smarter than given credit for, but hadn’t been able to prove it yet.

“Listen,” he sighed as he leaned forward to help set the board up, “There are some Death Eaters like my Aunt Bella, who would absolutely help the Dark Lord rise again because they are obsessed and live for the world he wanted to create,” he explained. Hermione stiffened at that. 

“...really?” She asked, lips pursing a bit. Draco nodded.

“And then there are Death Eaters who agree with him on principle alone, but adapt to survive. My parents are like that,” he shrugged, “And then there are Death Eaters who do whatever it takes to survive,” he explained, “And out of the three options, I can assure you Severus is not the first one,” he said dryly. 

“Aunt Bella…” Ron repeated and frowned, “I know that name.” 

“Bellatrix,” Draco said with a shrug as Harry made his first move on the chessboard. A bad one. Ron quickly countered, trapping the pawn with his knight. “Bellatrix Lestrange. She’s in-” he started, but was cut off by something shattering behind them. Draco turned just in time to see Neville Longbottom with a broken cup of spilled hot chocolate.

“What did you just say?” He asked. Draco frowned. 

“I wasn’t talking to you, Longbottom,” Draco said and Hermione cleared her throat, “But I _wasn’t!”_ He groaned and let his head fall forward, “Aren’t I already hanging around an unsavory lot as it is? Why are you-”

“Neville, would you like to join us?” Hermione interrupted. Draco gaped at her in absolute horror. Longbottom didn’t answer though. He was too busy staring at Draco with wide eyes. He raised an eyebrow expectantly. What? Was he too beautiful to look at or something?

“No. Thank you,” Neville said stiffly and fled up the stairs without even bothering to deal with the mess he left behind. Draco frowned. 

“What was that about?” Harry asked curiously as another one of his bishops got destroyed. Draco shook his head. He had no idea. His parents rarely mentioned the Longbottoms… they were an old pureblood family, he knew… but definitely blood traitors. He doubted any of their relatives had much interaction. Eh. Whatever. He turned back to the game in front of him and sighed. 

“Can I play against Ron next?” He asked, wrinkling his nose, “This is embarrassing to watch.” 

* * *

Christmas wasn’t exactly a thrilling event for Draco. Sure, Ron and Harry were here, but it wasn’t the same as being back home in his room with his parents and… No. He wouldn’t think of it. It didn’t matter. He didn’t even care anymore. 

In fact, he cared so little that he took the proper precautions for the event. Knowing that there wasn’t a single soul out there that would give him a present, he simply got himself some. Sort of. Well, he got Ron, Harry, and Hermione presents. He figured if he really was going to be friends with such a God awful group of miscreants, then he would ensure they knew he was a valuable person to have on their side. Draco would be _appreciated_.

“Wait, what?” Draco asked when he woke up to find a pile of packages the next morning. Ron was already ripping through his own gifts - urging a star struck Harry to do the same. “Who… why?” He asked with a frown, brows creasing slightly. Ron glanced up.

“...if you make a _single_ complaint, then I will never get you anything again.” 

Draco stared.

“You got me something? For Christmas?” He asked, bewildered. Ron shrugged.

“So did my mom, I think. Ah. Yep. Right there,” he said, pointing to one of the packages which was wrapped with newspaper. “And like I said… One word of complaint and I will sock you in the nose,” he promised, pointing a finger at him.

“That one is from me!” Harry added brightly with a nod towards another package. Draco wasn’t really sure what to say. He hadn’t really considered that they would get him something. Weasley was too poor. Hermione too… muggle (did muggles even give each other gifts at Christmas?). Harry too oblivious (and also raised with muggles, who might not share this gift giving tradition). Curiously, he reached forward, tugging the first present forward.

 _“You got me a broom?!”_ Ron's voice suddenly shrieked. Draco jumped as he glanced up to see Harry also gaping at the brand new training snitch Draco had gotten him. Both turned to him in stunned unison.

“You… said you played quidditch too?” He said, tilting his head. 

“It’s brilliant!” Harry gaped and let his thumb slide over the snitch, “How did you even get it?”

“Who cares?!” Ron asked as he turned his over admiringly, “We need to test them out later! Thanks, Draco,” he added. Draco nodded, a little uncertain how to handle the situation. He had never actually given gifts to anyone outside of his mother and father before. It was an odd feeling to be sure… not completely unwelcome though. There was a swell of satisfaction at seeing the pair so obviously pleased by Draco’s minimal effort. 

Draco’s own gifts were surprisingly satisfactory as well. Hermione had gotten him a rather lovely copy of a book he mentioned wanting, while Harry had apparently decided to get him an impressive amount of candy. Ron got him a stationary, which was unexpected but actually just the one Draco would have picked out himself if given the choice. Molly Weasley’s gift was by far the ugliest sweater he had ever seen. Remembering Ron’s words, he didn’t voice this opinion.

To her credit though, it wasn’t red, which was a nice addition to Draco’s now direly red wardrobe, but instead a lovely dark purple with a silver ‘D’ on the front. It was also admittedly pretty soft. Cautiously, he looked at where Harry was pulling his own sweater over his head and internally panicked. Did he have to wear his too? In front of people? Just as he was trying to figure out his next move, a silver package caught his eye. 

Tearing off the paper, a small note fell out along with two items. One was a pin of a lion with glittering red rubies while the other was a small, familiar dragon. He recognized it immediately as one of the dragons that his family’s crest bore. Resisting the urge to grin, he picked up the note. 

_Your mother asked me to bestow a memory of your family to you for the holidays. I thought it prudent to include a second one of your newest family as well… however awful they may appear to be. Perhaps try to make better of them. - S_

“What’s happening to your face?” Ron asked with a frown as he glanced over from Harry’s bed. Draco rolled his eyes and cradled the two pins close. 

“Severus and my mother got me gifts!” He beamed. Granted, Severus’ addition of the lion was probably meant as more of a joke, but it almost felt like a tentative acceptance. His mother’s inclusion of their family’s crest was equally relieving. Maybe there was hope for him to return yet. 

“Snape?” Harry asked and made a face, “I’m sorry.” 

“I _like_ him,” Draco reminded him with a sigh. Harry didn’t look convinced, “Whatever. What’s in that one?” He asked, nodding towards the final package at the end of the bed. Harry shook his head, tearing off the paper to reveal a cloak. 

An invisibility cloak. 

Draco was not thrilled. Don’t get him wrong, it was all well and fine that Harry received some sort of an heirloom from his late father, but these two weren’t the brightest as it was. The idea of giving the pair tools to go off and do foolish things was not particularly something Draco wanted to be a part of. Hermione wasn’t even here to help him. 

Draco learned quite quickly he was right to be concerned.   
  
Of course, Ron and Harry just _had_ to take the cloak out. Harry also seemed to have found it fun to go prowling around the castle at night. Draco wasn’t amused. However, despite his refusals to join, Harry did manage to use his immense talents of annoying him to drag him out of the common room one night.

“Where are we _going?”_ He whined as Harry pulled him along under the cloak.

“Dumbledore says it is going to get moved after tonight!” Harry whispered back, “So you have to see it _now_ or never again,” he told him. Draco didn’t bother saying he was spewing rubbish. It felt like a well-known fact at this point.

“How thrilling,” he muttered instead, “Thank you for using your words to explain that to me,” he grumbled and paused as they stopped in front of an empty classroom. Harry wasted no time in shoving him inside. “Watch it!” He hissed, only to pause when he noticed a darkened figure at the other end of the room. “....a mirror?” He asked, woefully unimpressed. “Have you finally seen how awful your hair is?”

“It shows you what you want most,” Harry snapped and pointed at their reflection, “See? Stand in front,” he ordered and pulled Draco forward. 

His heart stopped. 

“Ah,” he finally said, stomach sinking. Harry gave a slow intake as his own eyes fixated on the mirror, “It works for you too?” He asked, which was a stupid question, really. The Gryffindors were rubbing off on him. 

“Yeah,” he mumbled and stepped closer, “My parents. Ron… Ron couldn’t see them. He saw us winning the house cup and some other stuff,” he said slowly, as if he wasn’t sure he should give Draco a detailed telling of Ron’s deepest desire… it sounded stupid anyway. 

“What do you see, Draco?” Harry whispered as they stood in front of the old mirror. Draco only reached out to touch the glass with a sigh before withdrawing his hand, tilting his head down to hide the emotion on his face.  
  
“The same thing you see,” he answered and looked away from the smiling image of his parents. Harry sat on the ground, lips pursed as his eyes flicked over Draco for a moment before turning back to the mirror.

“Why do you care?” He asked. Draco didn’t really want to join him on the dirty floor, but he also didn’t see many other options given that he couldn’t really go back without him. “If they want you gone then… you know,” he shrugged awkwardly, “Why? They don’t sound like great people anyway.”

Draco considered. It was a question he found himself asking as well. Why? It was a complicated question, sure. With an equally complicated answer, but… he could narrow it down.

“You never met your parents,” he pointed out, “They could have been bad people. Maybe they didn’t even want you,” he said. Harry’s jaw tightened.

“My aunt and uncle used to tell me that.” He mumbled. Draco nodded.

“And yet, they are still what you desire most,” he said quietly. Harry stared at him - green eyes searching for a moment before he gave a small nod and turned back to the mirror, accepting of Draco’s answer. Silence filled the room.

“I’m happy you got sorted with us,” Harry decided suddenly and Draco scowled. Whatever then. He was happy that Harry’s parents were dead. Prick. “Because you can find people who will stand by you no matter what. You deserve that, I think,” he said. Draco’s previous ire dwindled. He wanted to say his parents would still want him, but… the truth of the matter was that he wasn’t sure about that anymore. Sighing, he tugged on Harry’s arm. 

“We should go,” he said and Harry sighed, clamoring up with one last wistful look towards the mirror. Draco felt a sudden pang in his chest. The past six months had been hard enough learning to live without parents. He couldn’t imagine living that way your whole life. 

“What?” Harry asked when Draco glared at him, “I didn’t do anything!” 

“Don’t say a _word_ ,” Draco warned and quickly stepped forward to pull him into a hug. He had planned for this moment of weakness to last only a second, but Harry immediately returned the gesture, clinging somewhere between uncertain and pleased. Draco couldn’t blame him. He wasn’t really too familiar with hugs either. “Okay. That’s done,” Draco mumbled when Harry finally let go.

“That was my favorite Christmas present,” Harry grinned. Draco gagged in disgust before giving a firm shake of his head. 

“You got an invisibility cloak from your dead father. Don’t lie to me.”

“I’m not lying!”

“Are too!” 

“Nope. It’s my favorite.”

“You better not tell _anyone_ ,” Draco muttered, “I’ll deny it and say you’ve gone around the bend. Maybe they’ll put you in St. Mungo’s or something,” he warned. Harry only gave a delighted laugh and led them back to the dormitories. 

The next morning, Draco had reached a decision. He needed a backup plan. His mother’s gift was an encouraging sign, but he also knew that her, alone, did not have the final say in the matter. If they didn’t want him home for Christmas, then they might not want him home for summer… and right now his options were looking like homeless or the Weasleys, and quite frankly he wasn’t sure which was worse. 

This meant it was time to play all of his cards.  
  
Draco wrote and rewrote with a sense of fury. He was on his fourth draft of this stupid letter, and a wave of defeat was beginning to crumble over him as he swallowed.  
  
_Dear Mrs. Tonks,_  
  
Did she prefer to be called that? Or maybe just Andromeda? Mrs. Andromeda? Draco had no idea.  
  
_I apologize for bothering you this time of year. My name is Draco Malfoy, I’m the son of your sister, Narcissa. I don’t believe we’ve met._  
  
They hadn’t. All traces of his aunt had been erased long ago – from family portraits, albums, anything really. The only reason he knew her name was through the long lectures his father had given him on what happens if a pureblood marries a muggle.  
  
_I doubt you’ve heard, but recently I have started attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Unlike most members of my family, I was not sorted into Slytherin, but in Gryffindor. I am coming to the realization that I may not have a home to come back to this summer._  
  
His fingers trembled and Draco put down his quill to regain his poise. The thought that he no longer had a home felt like a stab to the chest. He had failed his family and was now losing everything. Taking a deep breath, he continued to write.  
  
_I was wondering if it was at all possible for me to stay at your home. I understand if you are unable to accommodate me or if you are not comfortable having me around._  
  
_Thank you,_  
  
_Draco Malfoy_  
  
It was poorly worded and awkward, he knew. But Draco couldn’t find it within himself to care as he tied the string around a school owl and sent it off. From beside him, there was a curious hum. He turned to see Longbottom watching the owl take off. 

“A letter to your aunt?” He asked coldly. Draco frowned.

“Reading over my shoulder?” He sneered. Admittedly, he was a little baffled by his apparent anger on the matter. Longbottom wasn’t really a threatening person, but Draco could still see his face set into a hard line of anger as his glare sharpened.

“I’m surprised she still wants to talk to you,” Longbottom bit out. Draco felt his own temper rise.

“Well, considering she was disowned, I don’t really know who else to turn to,” he muttered and stabbed at his food, “Maybe she’s friends with your blood traitor parents,” he snapped out. For a moment, Longbottom’s face went red with rage - eyes widening for a moment before going completely still. 

“Wait, what? Bellatrix is disowned?” He asked. Draco paused.

“What? No. My Aunt Andromeda is,” he frowned, “Bellatrix is in Azkaban,” he said and tilted his head, “Why would I write to her?” He asked. There was a long pause. “Do you know Bella?” He asked, bewildered. Longbottom stared.

“Oh,” he said finally. Draco wasn’t sure what he was going ‘oh’ for, but alright. There were a few beats of silence. “I… I guess I thought you were close to her.” 

This didn’t answer Draco’s question at all, but he was beginning to think that Longbottom couldn’t carry on a conversation anyway. Instead he shrugged and bitterly picked at his food. 

“I’ve only seen her a handful of times. My mother visits her… I think because she feels bad, perhaps. Family is supposed to be important, but… I think something happened between them. I don’t really understand that side of my family all that much,” he admitted. His mother always did have a peculiar relationship with her sister. He wondered what she thought of Andromeda before things went so awry between them. 

“I see,” Longbottom said slowly, “Why was your aunt imprisoned?” He asked. Draco blinked. That… was actually a good question. She was a Death Eater, yes, but so were his parents and Snape… they all managed to find a way out of their sentences. Biting his lip, he turned to look over Longbottom for a moment.

“I’m not sure,” he said and tilted his head, “Do you know?”

He wasn’t sure why… but he felt like he did. Longbottom stared back at him before giving a small nod. Draco waited. 

“She tortured some people. Made them go insane,” he said, voice incredibly tight. “She and her husband spent days using unforgivable curses on him,” he said and swallowed hard. Draco looked at his food for a moment. Yeah… that seemed about right. 

“Days?” He repeated and shook his head, “That’s a long time,” he said, feeling oddly empty about the revelation. Not that it felt particularly revealing. “Bellatrix is a… very intense person,” he informed Longbottom solemnly as he tapped a finger against the table, “Whoever she tortured must have been very brave.”

“...you think so?” Neville asked. Draco shrugged.

“If you met her, you’d understand. As a child I wouldn’t go near her. Even with the dementors outside. It was almost like I would rather be near them then her.” He explained. Part of him felt guilty for so easily dismissing his aunt like this. It was just Longbottom though. Surely, his words wouldn’t mean much to this audience. “I don’t know… maybe Andromeda knows more about her,” he sighed. Neville smiled weakly.

“Yeah. Maybe,” he agreed and then bit his lip again, “Don’t take this the wrong way, but… you seem not so bad compared to your family,” he told him. Draco stared. His family was an old, pureblood family of powerful witches and wizards. Sure, they could be controversial, but the idea that Draco - disgraced and possibly disowned - was better than them? Ridiculous. “We can be friends,” Neville added. 

Wait. What?

“I don’t want to be your friend,” Draco said and ran an exasperated hand through his hair, “I already have too many badly poised friends, Longbottom. I can’t keep lowering my standards.”

“I’m a pureblood, and my family is one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight,” Neville told him flatly. Oh. Draco hadn’t actually known that. He knew some of the Sacred Twenty-Eight were wonkers, but he supposed they might still be considered a step up from his muggleborn bestie. 

“Fine,” Draco sighed and then looked back at Neville with narrowed eyes, “And why did you just randomly decide we should be friends?” He asked. Draco wasn’t typically the oblivious sort. That moreso fell into Harry’s realm. Neville smiled tightly, the expression not quite reaching his eyes. 

“I think it’s important for me,” he said slowly, “It is easy for me to be angry about who you are, but I think it’s important to remember we are more than just our families. After all, we’ll never be the people our parents are or even want us to be,” he shrugged. Draco stared.

Huh. He wasn’t entirely sure what he meant by that, but Draco got the feeling that perhaps Longbottom wasn’t so much of a lost cause after all. 

* * *

Harry turned out to have a bit of a temper. Draco learned this after watching both Ron and Hermione tell Harry they _shouldn’t_ endanger their lives by going after the stone only to be yelled at for their efforts. Granted, other adventures have happened since Draco had revealed the whole thing with Nicolas Flamel. Nonsense with a dragon, Pansy ratting them out to McGonagall, and detention in the _Forbidden Forest_. Because yeah. That made sense. Let’s just send children somewhere _forbidden_. 

“What sort of thing drinks _unicorn_ blood?” Harry had asked after they dashed away from the shadowy creature in the woods. He had looked somewhere between frightened and determined, which Draco hadn’t quite known what to make of. 

“Nothing good,” he had assured him and Harry firmly kept a hand on his arm for the rest of the time they were there, much to Draco’s annoyance. 

And now they were apparently stopping his godfather from stealing the sorcerer’s stone to bring back the Dark Lord. Draco still wasn’t pleased with the fact Hermione had set the man on fire at one point, but he had at least hoped they might see that Severus wasn’t the type of person to just try his hand at necromancy. 

Harry was not so easily dissuaded. 

“I won’t blame you if you go back now-” Harry began and Draco turned to level a cold glare at him.

“Shut up,” he snapped back in a whisper to avoid disturbing the very large three-headed dog in front of them, “You dragged us all the way here. Let’s save this stupid stone from my apparently evil godfather so that I can go back and see my exam scores,” he told him. Ron and Hermione paused.

“Uh, yeah… we’re not leaving you, mate,” Ron said slowly, “Because you shouldn’t be in danger alone,” he added to Draco. Oh, whatever. His reasoning worked too. 

The rest was both incredibly horrifying and boring all at once. They passed the dog fine. Harry’s ugly flute worked well enough. Hermione damn near killed them with her ‘there’s no wood’ during the devil’s snare (“For once, I’m with the ginger here, Hermione. You go to a school for witchcraft,” Draco had told her as Ron gave a pleased nod at having been sided with). Harry got a key from some flying keys, and Ron pretty much died getting knocked out by a game of chess.

“No,” Draco said firmly, “You stay with him. I’ll go with Harry,” he instructed as he looked at Ron warily, “Concussions are dangerous. He needs someone with him to make sure he doesn’t choke on his own puke or something,” he said. Hermione wrung her hands nervously.

“You think he has a concussion?”

“His head is hard… but not that hard,” Draco said wisely. “Severus’ has got to be the last test to get past,” he shrugged, “It won’t be hard for me,” he said confidently. Hermione hadn’t been sure, but eventually went back to care for Ron as Harry and Draco moved forward.

“There’s only enough for one of us,” Harry said after Draco had gone through Snape’s ludicrous riddle of poisons and potions. “Do you know which one takes you back?” He asked, gesturing to the purple flames behind them. Draco nodded absently. “Maybe you should go with Ron and Hermione and I’ll take this,” Harry said, looking at the meager amount of liquid. Draco snorted.

“No way,” he said and looked around the rest of the potions. “Severus wouldn’t be stupid enough to just let there be only one bottle. What if something went wrong, and they had to get inside quickly?” He asked and knelt down in front of the bottle, “No… Give me a moment. If we mix some of these together, they’ll make a second batch,” he promised. 

“You’re sure?” Harry asked, and Draco picked one of the other bottles up, “Didn’t you say three were poisoned?”

“Yep,” Draco told him and smelled the top of one. Nettle wine. “I’m pretty sure that is belladonna,” he added with a nod towards the bubbling, green liquid. “However, the poisonous properties are often negated when mixed with… aha!” Draco grinned and picked up two more bottles. “Got it,” he said and after several more minutes of Harry nervously twitching, mixed them all together.

“I can go-”

“Leave me behind and I’ll break your nose,” Draco warned and picked up the new mixture, “Let me see yours?” He asked and grabbed the bottle in Harry’s hand. “Yeah… that looks like the same color. It smells the same too,” he said and handed Harry his bottle back.

“Wait!” Harry said and quickly traded bottles, “Let me have that one. Just in case.” 

Draco stared.

“You doubt my skills?”

“No!” He said quickly and rubbed the back of his neck, “Well, you are eleven…”

 _“You’re eleven too!”_ Draco growled and threw his hand up, “Just drink it,” he snapped and waited for Harry to get through the fire before downing his own. “Bloody think I can’t bloody do potions,” he grumbled and marched after him.

The first thing he saw was Harry frozen to the spot as he stared at someone (unsurprisingly) not Snape. On the other hand… well, there was one surprising thing...

“Quirrel?” Draco frowned and tilted his head, “Really?” 

Harry seemed equally as stunned by their professor smirking in front of the Mirror of Erised without a damn tremor on him. 

“But I thought - Snape-”

“Severus?” Quirrell laughed. “Yes, he does seem the type, doesn’t he?”

“Told you,” Draco said. Harry threw him a panicked look. Ah. Right. Concern. Quirrell was bad. He refocused. However, it was a little hard when Harry kept throwing Quirrell his evidence only for it to be revealed that Snape was protecting Harry. Honestly. Draco was so much smarter than everyone else. 

His mind flicked to Hermione and Ron, and for a moment the cockiness faded. As fun as it was to be right, there was also a very real danger here. He glanced over at where Harry was staring at the mirror intently. Draco swallowed.

_“Use… the boy…”_

Draco’s blood went cold.

“Potter! Come here-”

“Don’t touch him,” Draco snapped and pulled Harry back, yanking him away from Quirrell as he approached. “He sees his parents. That’s it. Keep yourself and the weird voice over there,” he warned. 

A high-pitched laugh followed. Somehow, it came from Quirrell despite his mouth being pressed into a firm line. Harry’s hand twitched behind him.

“Draco,” he breathed out and his hand tightened at the back of his robes, “I have it,” he whispered, so low that Draco almost didn’t hear. This was… good news. Sort of. They had the stone! Hurray! Also, Quirrell was definitely going to _murder_ them once he realized.

Quirrell clapped his hands, and whatever else Draco might have done was thwarted by ropes slithering around him, binding his hands to his sides with a sharp tug. Harry’s eyes widened as he knelt down to help him, but Quirrell snapped his fingers.

“Come here or I'll kill him.”

Oh, how typical.

Draco struggled against his bindings as Harry immediately walked over to stand in front of the mirror. More whispering echoed around the room - somehow coming from Quirrell. Alright… think. Think, think, think… Harry had the stone. Quirrell seemed to realize Harry could get it and would eventually come to that conclusion.

“I see it!” Draco said suddenly. Harry spun around, eyes wide as Quirrell paused. “I see the stone in the mirror,” he lied, heart thudding wildly in his chest. “I… have it,” he managed. 

Draco didn’t consider himself a stupid person. This though? Well, he was really embracing the stupid side of himself for sure. Quirrell abandoned Harry to move closer. He muttered to himself, voice somewhere between a whisper and squeak of terror.

“A Malfoy,” a voice said, echoing throughout the room, “Oh, how interesting… Quirrell, let me see him,” it said - voice slow and horribly taut. Draco felt his stomach twist as Quirrell began to undo his turban. Desperately, Draco tried to meet Harry’s eyes. Run. _Run_. He had the potion to get back through the fire, right? Why wasn’t he _running?_ Quirrell would realize Draco didn’t have the stone soon enough.

“You know,” Draco snapped, trying to keep the fear out of his voice, “I don’t particularly care to see your hair.” 

Right… the turban wasn’t hiding any hair. In fact, Quirrell appeared to be completely bald as the cloth fell away. Harry’s eyes widened - unrestrained terror washing over his face as he stepped back.

This wasn’t good. 

“This is unexpected.”

Yeah, Draco agreed. Unexpected was one word for it. Another might have included words that an eleven-year-old probably shouldn’t know. There was a face. A face on the back of Quirrell’s head. Draco wasn’t new to the magical world - he had seen some alarming things, but this? This was not something he had been prepared for. At all.

It was a horrible, grayish color with squished features and scars on the side of its face. Beady eyes stared at him, obvious delight playing over marred features.

“Ah, would you just look at that,” the face said, and Draco felt his fingers tingle with the slow realization of who he must be talking to, “Lucius wasn’t lying. You do look so very much like your mother, Draco,” he purred.

His skin prickled. Harry was still standing completely still - hand clenched around his wand, though Draco doubted it would do much good. The Dark Lord licked his lips, a greedy look of excitement hinting at his expression. 

“You…” he tried and shook his head to clear away the confusion, “You’re…”

“Yes,” the face nodded, “And I have deeply enjoyed this year we spent together, Draco. Who would have thought such a proud pureblood such as yourself would be in such an unfortunate position?” He asked and Quirrell took a step backwards, bringing the face closer to him. “I do think we can easily rectify the situation though,” he said.

Right. They could, couldn’t they? If Draco helped him… if he helped _Voldemort himself_ … well, his parents would have to take him, wouldn’t they? He would not only reclaim his name, but honor it. Even his father couldn’t claim to have been of service to the Dark Lord at a mere eleven-years-old…

“If I give you the stone,” Draco said slowly and swallowed numbly, “You would be restored to full power?” He asked. Voldemort nodded. Or, well, tried to. It was a bit hard given he was stuck on the back of someone’s head. 

All he had to do was tell him that Harry had the stone. It was an easy decision, really.

And yet… he couldn’t understand why it felt so hard to do it.

“Could you take the ropes off?” He asked, “I can’t reach it tied up,” he managed. Harry was still there. Why wouldn’t he _run?_ Draco was beginning to think he wanted this to end badly. With another clap from Quirrell, the ropes fell away, leaving Draco to sit with his final decision.

“Come now,” Voldemort hummed, “Hand it over.” 

Draco reached into his pocket… and grabbed his wand. 

He would kill Hermione for sure. Probably finish Harry off for good measure too. Ron might be tortured. It… he… he couldn’t… 

“I want to make a deal,” Draco said slowly and Voldemort blinked, “Spare my friends and I’ll hand it over,” he said. A cold laugh followed.

“Loyalty. The most Slytherin trait there is. Your Aunt Bellatrix’s dedication was also unwavering even in the face of danger and opportunity,” Voldemort mused. Draco swallowed. “Very well,” he said, “They'll live in the world you and I will create,” he said. Something told Draco that his agreement was way too easy. Too amendable. He ignored the voice. 

In many years to come, Draco would never be certain if he would have told the Dark Lord where the stone actually was. The answer would remain a mystery, seeing as Harry James Potter, the boy who lived, future savior of the wizarding world, and sadly an important part of Draco’s life, sprinted full speed at one of the most powerful wizards of all time and tackled him with all of his measly, prepubescent strength.

It was a story Draco would never tire of telling. 

Quirrell stumbled, but otherwise seemed unmoved by Harry’s weight. However, there was a God awful screech, that filled the room along with the scent of burning flesh that told Draco that Harry’s stupid idea hadn’t been a complete failure. 

_“Harry-”_ Draco began, rushing forward, but was thrown back as Quirrell raised his hand, slamming him into a wall with a loud crack. Draco gasped as the world momentarily spun - leaving him to see Harry stare at his hands for a moment before rushing forward towards Quirrell again. 

Draco tried to get up to join him, but there was another snap as the wall he had been thrown into cracked, and a large piece of stone tumbled down. The last thing he heard was Harry screaming his name before everything went black.

Later, Draco awoke to Albus Dumbledore sitting on the edge of his bed.

The bed also happened to be in the hospital wing, which was rather concerning, but Draco decided Dumbledore sitting next to him was going to take top priority, since Draco was clearly alive and only moderately injured, seeing as he was in little pain.

“Thank goodness you’re awake,” Dumbledore greeted him brightly, “Mr. Potter was quite concerned to learn you were not yet awake earlier,” he said. Draco sat up, frowning as he looked around. He saw a curtain pulled a few beds down and decided immediately it must be Harry’s. He was okay then. That was something.

“Ron and Hermione…?” He ventured quietly and Dumbledore smiled.

“Quite well and concerned about you too,” he said. Ugh. Gross. Draco just wanted to make sure they were alive. Not if they were _worried_ about him. “I must say, your first year at Hogwarts does not seem to be what anyone expected, Mr. Malfoy,” he hummed and picked up a few candies. It was then that Draco realized that his bed was swarmed with cards and sweets. “Ah, yes. You and the others have caught the attention of your classmates for your valiant efforts,” he smiled.

“I see,” Draco said and winced as he tried to sit up, “Professor, may I speak plainly?” He asked and the man paused in his sorting to look at him patiently, “Perhaps the next time you need to hide an important magical object… maybe don’t choose a school. While I appreciate the talents all of our professors bring to the table, I can assure you there are other banks outside of Gringotts which have quite satisfactory security,” he said dryly. Dumbledore’s eyes twinkled as he gave a stoic nod.

“I will most certainly keep your words in mind.”

Thank God. Draco came here to bloody learn. Not save the world. He was eleven. Though… now that they were on the topic…

“Have… my parents contacted you?” He asked and then winced, “I mean, do they know about… well, all of this?” He asked, gesturing vaguely. He wasn’t sure if this was a cause for celebration or rebuke anymore. At the very least they would be worried about him, right?

Dumbledore’s eyes dimmed.

“Do you play chess, Draco?”

Draco wasn’t really sure he liked this man. Just tell him whether his parents cared that he almost died already. 

“I suppose,” he sighed and fell back against the pillow, “Are you about to tell me that life is like chess in an effort to come up with some shrouded reason as to why my parents no longer care about my well-being?” He asked. Really, it wasn’t that hard to see. Draco could handle the information without the analogy.

“Quite the opposite,” Dumbledore said, silencing that thought. Oh. “You see, in chess you know beforehand what pieces are on the board. You know that pawns will probably die off, while queens will be the conquering pieces,” he shrugged, “However, in life… there are pieces we aren’t aware will play a role in the game at all,” he said and leaned forward, “It can be tricky to figure out what to do with them once they appear on your board.” 

Draco stared. Something about Dumbledore seemed to change for a moment. His eyes still twinkled merrily, the blue bright and striking as ever. However, there was an iciness to it that Draco wasn’t sure what to make of. Something… firm and unwavering.

“My mother always said we shouldn’t compare life to games,” Draco finally answered, “It is unbecoming to simplify the world to rules that are easily broken,” he said and then reconsidered, “And dehumanizing,” he decided. Dumbledore hummed.

“Yes,” he agreed - though Draco wasn’t sure he truly did - “Narcissa is a wise woman. I see much of her in you,” he smiled and patted his leg, “Perhaps that is where you get your bravery,” he mused. Draco scoffed.

“And yet, she was in Slytherin.” 

Dumbledore’s smile grew.

“The sorting hat does make odd decisions, doesn’t it?” He asked. Draco didn’t answer. He was pretty sure his feelings on the matter should be obvious. “You know, it wanted to place me in Slytherin,” he said. _That_ gave Draco a pause. “I am said to be quite ambitious and cunning, after all,” he mused.

“Why weren’t you?” He asked, shaking his head. Dumbledore tapped his chin thoughtfully. 

“Ah, well, if there is one thing I’ve noticed over the years… it is that some ambition takes self-preservation, while others take courage. Perhaps the sorting hat knows where our priorities lie,” he smiled. For some reason… Draco wasn’t sure that made him feel better.

Dumbledore left their odd conversation there. Ron and Hermione were next to visit him before he and Harry were discharged to join the others at the feast. It was revealed Slytherin won the House Cup. Draco wasn’t surprised. He was almost a little disappointed though. Maybe a small part of him had wanted to have supported his house. It could have shut Pansy up at least. 

“Yes, yes, well done, Slytherin,” Dumbledore nodded over the crowd of cheering, “However, recent events must be taken into account.”

Wait. Draco hadn’t been serious. He wasn’t going to…? No. Absolutely not. 

“Ahem,” said Dumbledore, “I have a few last-minute points to dish out. Let me see. Yes… First - to Mr. Ronald Weasley,” he began, and Draco watched curiously as Ron went downright purple as the hall turned to him suddenly, “For the best-played game of chess Hogwats has seen in many years, I award Gryffindor house thirty points.”

The room rumbled. Draco frowned. This must be pretty confusing to those who didn’t know all that had happened. Perhaps they thought Ron had beaten Dumbledore in a rather intense chess match. Of course, Percy Weasley’s yells righted the matter as he screeched on about his little brother beating McGonagall’s chess set. 

“Second - to Miss Hermione Granger… for superb herbology knowledge, I award Gryffindor house thirty points,” Dumbledore said. The hall’s energy rose again as Hermione buried her face into Draco’s arm. He could feel her sniffling against him and sighed, patting the side of her bushy hair.

“Stop it,” he told her, “Everyone’s watching you. Be respectable.”

“Oh, you’re right,” she mumbled and sat up straight, wiping the tears away as she jutted out her chin with pride. Draco gave her a firm nod of approval. Dumbledore beamed down at them. Draco shook his head. 

“This seems unfair,” he said to where everyone was ignoring him, “If you end this with us winning by a slight amount over Slytherin, then I will be displeased.”

“Third - to Mr. Harry Potter…” Dumbledore said as the room went silent once more. “For pure nerve and outstanding courage, I award Gryffindor house… Forty-five points,” he said and Draco nodded. Good. They were up a hundred and twenty-five points, sure, but Slytherin was still ahead by another forty-five. There was no way Dumbledore would be so cruel as to hand another forty-five out so freely...

“And to Mr. Draco Malfoy,” Dumbledore continued with a twinkling gaze across the hall to where he was sitting. Draco shook his head. 

“I would rather not be a part of this,” he said to nobody in particular. He was fairly certain Dumbledore could hear him with all his great magic, but the man remained obstinate in ruining Draco’s life apparently. 

“Over the course of the year he has proven that one can always stay true to oneself even in the most dire of circumstances.”

“Please don’t,” Draco whispered. 

“For a daring nerve that could have been possessed by Godric Gryffindor himself I award Gryffindor… another forty-five points.”

“That’s… very unfair,” Draco repeated as the table exploded with excitement, “Feels like you’re sending a bad message here,” he said and looked around, “No? Just going to let four people who broke the rules regarding our safety go unpunished? Okay then. Can’t wait until next year to gather some cheap house points,” he sighed. Well, they had officially tied with Slytherin for the house cup.

Dumbledore raised his hand. Oh, he _had_ to be kidding. 

“There are all kinds of courage,” he announced, smiling. Draco shook his head in disbelief. “It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends. Therefore, I award ten points to Mr. Neville Longbottom.”

Honestly, Dumbledore should have been sorted into Slytherin. 

* * *

The train ride felt solemn. Hermione had taken up the mantle of trying to cheer him up by filling his lap with various books she thought he might like. Ron also would occasionally jump in with reminders he was invited to stay with his family - under the condition he wasn’t a total wanker, of course. 

“My parents might be waiting for me on the platform,” he said weakly. They wouldn’t completely abandon him, right? Ron grimaced.

“Maybe…” he agreed, though the words felt weak.

Harry was the only one who seemed to really be on the same page about the whole thing. He also was staring out the window of the train, staring forlornly as Ron tried to cheer him up while Hermione jumped in with her comments.

“Maybe I should stay with your muggles,” Draco finally said when silence overtook them, “Am I allowed to be mean to these ones?”

“Yes,” Harry said, and a hint of a smile touched his lips, “Just them though,” he mused and Draco considered. This was good news at least. He felt pretty prepared when they stepped off the train onto the platform. With his last bit of hope, he scanned the platform.

Nothing… it was what he expected at least. Taking a long breath, he grabbed his luggage and followed Harry’s gaze to where a rather hideous looking man was waiting to the side.

Ah, yes. Target acquired. Shoving aside his mourning, he marched out, leaving a very concerned trio of friends behind him.

“Vernon Dursley?” He asked the mustache man. There was a pause to which Vernon looked around, spluttering for a moment at this small eleven-year-old, “Hello, my name is Draco Malfoy,” he continued, nonplussed. “We have much in common, you see.”

“Do we now?” He asked stiffly. Draco smiled.

“In a way. While your family hates wizards, my family hates muggles,” he explained, holding out both arms. “In fact, they hate them so much that they think they should be killed for their common, useless ways,” he clicked his tongue. “But luckily, Harry has assured me you aren’t as awful as the rest of your lot,” he smiled.

It was fun to see a grown man so terrified.

“And he’ll owl me if that changes - right, Harry?” He called over his shoulder. Harry grinned at him, pulling his suitcase up to them as Hermione fixed him with a semi-exasperated look. 

“Will do!” Harry said brightly and lightly shoved Draco as he passed, “Are you sure you don’t want to stay with us for the summer?” He asked innocently. Vernon’s face went purple. 

“That’s such a sweet offer,” a voice said and Draco spun around. That sounded like his mother. In fact, as he looked out towards the mass of people he could have sworn he saw her face staring back at him. “But I’m afraid he’ll be coming with me.”

...oh.

“Mrs. Tonks?” He asked a bit uncertainly. She was a strange mix of Bellatrix and his mom. The same face with softer brown eyes and light brown hair. She was dressed casually, a loose dress that fell to her knees and a beaded bag by her side.

“Andromeda works fine,” she said and her eyes snapped to Vernon curiously. “Hi, I’m Draco’s aunt-”

“We should go,” Vernon said quickly and grabbed Harry’s luggage, “Get in the car,” he added lowly. Harry snorted and gave Draco one last beaming look before turning away.

Draco paused to give Andromeda a curious look.

“Thank you for coming,” he finally said and paused when she put a hand on his shoulders, “I, um, know you didn’t have to-”

“Nonsense,” she interrupted and tilted her head, “Let’s get a good look at you. God, you look just like Narcissa,” she smiled softly and put a finger under his chin, “I’m sorry, this year probably wasn’t what you expected,” she added with pursed lips.

“I fought Voldemort on the back of my professor’s head,” he said calmly. Andromeda paused. “Also, I helped win the House Cup by accident,” he sighed, “Slytherin won’t ever take me,” he muttered, kicking the ground. Andromeda pursed her lips.

“I’m not sure they deserve you,” she decided and patted the side of his face, “Go say bye to your friends and we’ll get your bags and floo powder,” she told him. Draco paused.

“Um, I don’t see a house elf-”

“Part of being disowned means you learn to live on a budget,” Andromeda informed him flatly. Draco turned, gaping a bit as he stared back at Ron and Hermione in horror. Hermione was watching Vernon with an air concern, while Molly Weasley rushed over to greet her son and say something to Harry and his increasingly panicked uncle. 

“Oh, I think I’m going to like you,” Ron told Andromeda, “Can you make him wash dishes?” He asked dryly. Draco narrowed his eyes. “Or, actually, laundry. Make him do laundry,” he said. Draco watched as a smile hinted at Andromeda’s lips.

“Thank you for the suggestions,” she said and then paused to look at Draco warily, “I didn’t think of this - but are you aware I married a muggleborn?” She asked slowly. “I’m not sure what your parents told you about me.”

“Oh, well, I’m a muggleborn and Draco is friends with me,” Hermione jumped in, seemingly distracted now that Molly Weasley was harassing an amused Harry and his uncle. Andromeda rose an eyebrow, “Don’t get me wrong - he can be a bit difficult to reason with, but I do believe he is becoming more accepting of muggles-”

“Hermione!” Draco hissed, turning red, “I am _not_ -”

“Yeah, don’t give him too much credit,” Ron frowned and turned back to Andromeda, “Your nephew can be a prejudiced git,” he informed her. Mrs. Weasley spun back around.

 _“Ronald Weasley!”_ She shrieked and Draco stuck out his tongue at him. 

“It’s true though,” he said and then gave Draco a small smile, “I’ll see you next year though, okay?”

“Yeah!” Harry said, sliding back in. From behind him, Vernon Dursley had turned downright purple with anger. Draco narrowed his eyes and immediately the muggle paused in walking towards Harry. “You’ll play on the quidditch team next year, right? McGonagall said you could,” he told him eagerly.

“Yeah, maybe you can get thrown off your broom too.”

_“Ron-”_

“I’ll miss you!” Hermione cried and, to Draco’s utter horror, launched herself forward to hug him. He stiffened - completely mortified they were doing this where everyone could see. “Thank you for being my first friend!” She added and sniffed a bit as she pulled away, “You’ll write, won’t you?” She asked and turned to Harry and Ron, who both nodded. “Good,” she beamed and squeezed Draco’s arms as she stepped back.

“We should probably be going,” he told Andromeda. Harry and Ron exchanged equally evil looks.

“Bye, Draco!”

“We’ll miss you!”

“Lots of love!” Fred called, possibly sensing trouble happening and appearing as if he had been summoned with that damn twin behind him. “I’ll think of you often-”

“Hugs and kisses!” George threw in, pretending to blow kisses his way. Andromeda scoffed, but allowed Draco to drag her away from the cackling group. She looked down at him - probably taking in the steaming expression he wore as he marched away, muttering under his breath.

“I’m glad you wrote to me,” she decided and Draco paused. “You have good friends.” 

For whatever silly reason… that alone made Draco think the year hadn’t been so bad after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> annddddd that's it for year one! I plan on books 1-3 being around 2 chapters each while 4-7 will be 3... which I know totals to 18 instead of 20, but I really throw canon out the window the further I go so I figured Deathly Hollows would be a toss up lol. Thanks for dropping by!


	3. Year Two (In Which Draco’s Friends are Annoying and Theodore Nott is Not)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YEARRRR TWOOOOOO!!!! Aka the first year I give Draco a mental breakdown. Get used to it kid.
> 
> Also, sorry this one took a bit longer. I've been a smidge sick.

“You’ve forgotten something!”

“I haven’t!” Draco complained as Hermione giggled beside him. Tonks raised an eyebrow at him. She did look rather ridiculous with her fish eyes and snout. “Stop doing that,” he grumbled and glanced around the shop. “People are _staring_.”

“Should I be a bit more incognito?” His cousin asked, and her form shifted to a smaller girl with long brown hair and brown eyes. Draco rolled his eyes, and she shifted back to the way she usually looked with her stupid pink hair and dark, mischevious eyes. 

“Wow,” Mr. Granger marveled, mouth slightly opened as he stared at Tonks. Draco shot him a curious look before turning to Hermione, who was smirking. He hadn’t expected his trip to Diagon Alley to consist of his auror cousin or Hermione’s muggle parents, yet here they all were. Andromeda was currently leading Ted away from a variety of broomsticks, trying to distract him with the Grangers (“Look, darling. Hermione’s parents are muggles as well. Perhaps you can walk them through some adjustments.”)

“I’m not kidding, Draco,” Tonks said, “You _are_ forgetting something.”

“Nymphadora, _please,”_ he begged, “Stop it!”

“What’s he forgetting?” Hermione asked, and he shot her a betrayed look as Tonks beamed.

“A smile!” She sang, her hair turning bright blue. Draco groaned, stuffing another quill into his bag. Hermione shook her head, brightening when a flock of redheads (guess who) came their way.

“Ron!” She called brightly, and the gangly boy walked over to them with wide eyes and tense features.

“We lost Harry,” were the first words out of his mouth.

“That didn’t take long,” Draco observed, “Where did you last leave him?”

“We took the floo and he said the wrong thing!” Ron moaned, “Mum is so worried! What if we sent him someplace awful?!” He whispered, and Hermione clasped a hand over her mouth to stifle her gasp.

“Worse than your house?” Draco asked innocently and almost immediately regretted it when Andromeda’s voice cut through.

“ _What_ was that, Draco Lucius Malfoy?”

“Busted,” Tonks smirked at him, and Draco made a face, turning to look at his aunt with what he hoped was an innocent expression.

“Ron says Harry is missing,” he told her and felt a surge of relief when Andromeda’s mouth dropped, her hands clasping worriedly in front of her.

“Missing? Where? Is he alright?” She asked with a frown. Draco could only shrug. He felt fairly confident in Harry’s abilities to stay alive at this point. If the Dark Lord didn’t manage to kill him after two attempts, he doubted the boy would be thwarted by floo powder.

No one else seemed to think this way as they all panicked and made plans to contact the ministry – lord, Harry would be horrified to learn they sent _aurors_ to find him. He also found it immensely amusing that nobody seemed to confer with his cousin (you know... an auror) to see what she thought.

“It’s because they still think of me as a kid,” Nymphadora sighed, probably sensing his thoughts as she crossed her arms over her chest. “Give them a second. They’ll remember.” 

“Or you’re bad at your job,” Draco suggested. Tonks turned to look at him, scowling for a moment before flicking his forehead.

“I’ll put cockroaches in your bed again.”

Draco _knew_ that had been her. Evil. Maybe he would retaliate by putting spiders in her hair. The thought made him smile a little. It was only after thirty minutes that Hagrid had come with Harry in tow that everyone calmed down.

Apparently, he was in Knockturn Alley, which Draco didn’t think was that bad, but Mrs. Weasley and Aunt Andromeda were absolutely horrified. He tried not to be offended at the comment of that being where ‘dark wizards’ go. He used to go there all the time. Severus visited often and even _Hagrid_ was there. Big whoop.

“Are you going to see Lockhart?” Tonks asked, shuffling them near the bookstore. Hermione was bouncing – literally jumping up and down on the balls of her feet – as she nodded eagerly, while Draco groaned.

“You know, my father says he is a _complete_ farce,” he told her, but Hermione didn’t seem to hear him as her hands straightened her robes, picking off any remaining lint. Ron was nodding in agreement with him. Harry looked confused – as always.

“Lockhart?” He asked. Hermione nodded eagerly.

“Oh, he’s _brilliant-_ ” she began as Draco drifted away to look at something more interesting than the stacks of books they were supposed to be buying. Honestly, it was ridiculous that whoever their new defense teacher was had them buying solely _Lockhart_ books. Possibly another sham of a professor. He hoped at the very least that the Dark Lord wasn’t on the back of this one’s head.

To Draco’s utter bafflement, Lockhart himself was also found in Flourish and Blotts with a ridiculous smile and eager eyes. It only took a moment for him to find Harry in the crowd, dragging him to the front with cameras flashing wildly at the pair of famous fools together. 

“Are you alright?” Draco asked when Harry managed to escape, ignoring Hermione’s fawning and Ron’s silent sizzling. “He seemed a bit… grabby,” he motioned towards Lockhart and Harry grimaced.

“Everyone is a bit grabby when they first meet me,” he muttered and Draco nodded. He wasn’t sure, but he could probably aim a good hex from where he was at – if Andromeda wasn’t looking. Harry must have read his mind because he laughed.

“Don’t. Your aunt seems scary.”

“She is,” Draco assured him, “She made me clean the kitchen once,” he shuddered and Harry rolled his eyes, bumping shoulders with him slightly.

“She’s nice though?” He pushed and Draco nodded. Despite Andromeda’s stern glances and voice of doom, Draco found she always looked after him in the same way his mother typically did.

“I like her,” he admitted, which was really quite a feat. Draco didn’t like anybody. Harry must have sensed this because his smile widened. He didn’t say anything though, which the other boy appreciated.

He was about to suggest they drag Hermione away from Lockhart before she started drooling when a sudden flash of silver caught his attention. Draco stiffened. Harry didn’t seem to notice, too busy trying to whisper something to Ron. Taking advantage of the lack of attention, Draco stepped away from them to follow the graceful figure to the front of the store.

“…father?” He called hesitantly and Lucius froze.

Draco hadn’t gotten so much as a single word from his father since his sorting. Any form of communication almost always came from his mother – on occasion from Severus. For a moment he wondered if the man was going to ignore him before he felt gray eyes lock onto him.

“Draco,” he breathed, and they looked one another up and down for a moment. His lips tugged at the corners slightly. “You’ve grown.”

“Yes. I need new robes already,” he laughed nervously, “Is mother with you?” He asked, peering around. Lucius shook his head.

“She’s visiting your aunt,” he answered, and Draco tried not to flinch at the mention of Bellatrix. He had often gone on the grueling trips to Azkaban and was more than happy to be missing out on one. Bellatrix normally said nothing of interest anyway, only crowing about how he looked so much like his mother, and when the dark lord returned, would be a ‘good little servant’.

“Oh,” he said and went over all his etiquette. He stood up a bit straighter and lifted his chin, “I-”

“Draco, where-? Lucius,” Andromeda’s voice came from behind him, and to his horror, Harry, Ron, and Hermione followed her (the little Weasley girl squirmed her way beside Harry as well).

“Ah,” his father clicked his tongue, “Andromeda. I was wondering if I would see you today,” he sighed and Draco lowered his gaze. “Narcissa informed me you were… hijacking our son.”

“It hardly counts as hijacking if he had nowhere else to go,” Andromeda spoke sharply, and Draco felt her hands slip on his shoulders. They squeezed reassuringly.

“Try not to poison his thoughts with your backwards ways of thinking,” Lucius said coolly, “I see you already have him in the company of, well,” his eyes flickered to where Ron, Hermione, and Harry were standing.

Draco swallowed. He wasn’t sure if the humiliation came from his father seeing his friends or vice versa. Andromeda made a noise in the back of her throat.

“Is there anything else you have to say, Lucius?” She growled and the elder Malfoy cocked a brow.

“It appears not,” he responded coolly and without another glance at Draco, whisked himself out of the room. Draco bit his lip.

“Are you alright, darling?” Andromeda asked him, letting go of his shoulders. Draco shrugged away from her with a nod, not meeting her eyes. He felt everyone else staring. 

“Let’s stop by Zonko’s!” Tonks suggested brightly, and everyone gave a cry of agreement. Harry sidled up next to him.

“That was your dad?” He asked, staring at the door with his head tilted.

“No, it was my mother,” Draco snapped at him and Harry rolled his eyes. Again. He did that a lot – almost as much as Draco did.

“Want a chocolate frog?” He offered and passed him a wrapped candy. Draco shook his head, but Harry only prodded him with it further until the other boy finally relented and unwrapped it.

“These are truly terrible pictures,” he noted as he pulled out a photo of Nicolas Flamel. “You would think that with all the fame they could afford a nice picture to put on these cards,” he tsked and Harry chuckled.

“If I was on a chocolate card, I would purposely make the ugliest face.”

“That’s how you defeated the Dark Lord probably. He saw your face and _died_.”

“Thank goodness he didn’t see you then. He might have exploded and the entire street would have been gone,” Harry shot back. Draco opened his mouth to retort when Ron bounded between them.

“Your dad is a huge prick!” He informed Draco happily.

“ _Ronald_!” Hermione growled, appearing next at Draco’s other side.

“What? It wasn’t like we didn’t know he was a prick before. He did ditch you, mate,” he told Draco, “Now we just got to see it in person.”

“He didn’t _ditch_ me,” Draco muttered, “Ditching is what you did to Harry earlier that had him end up in Borgin and Burkes.”

“Hey!” Ron frowned and wrapped a gangly arm around Harry, “I would _never_ … on purpose at least. Hey, really sorry about that,” he added and Harry laughed, shoving the other boy away. Draco wrinkled his nose at their antics, but said nothing.

“Draco! Hey! Draco Malfoy!”

Draco’s ears perked up as he spun around to see Theodore Nott stumbling over to them. Instantly he felt his face light up as he waved back. Ron muttered something under his breath that had Hermione step on his foot in response.

“Hi!” Draco beamed when Theo caught up. Over the summer, Theo had reached out to him and informed the boy he still wanted to be friends. The pair had grown up together and while Draco had been sure he would lose him just as he had with Blaise and Pansy, Theo remained obstinate with his decision.

“Hi!” Theo repeated, ignoring the other three. “How was your summer?” He asked as he bounced up and down. Theo had always lacked most of the poise and prestige a pureblood was expected to have – as a younger brother he wasn’t expected to inherit much for it to really matter anyway.

“Great! I got to go see some aurors in the Ministry of Magic,” he said before he could help himself. Theo’s eyes widened as he shouldered a bag and fell into step with Draco.

“Really?” He demanded, “My father never lets me see the Ministry,” he grumbled and Ron cleared his throat. “Oh. Uh, hi,” Theo added, looking at the other three and bit his lip.

“Hello, Theodore,” Hermione greeted calmly and Theo blinked. His gaze drifted over her before flicking to Draco, who let his eyes narrow slightly in warning.

“Had a nice summer?” He asked her politely and Hermione nodded. “I heard _you_ used magic outside of school,” Theo snuck in with a glance at Harry.

“No, I _didn’t_ ,” Harry snapped back with annoyance. Draco spun around, mouth falling open.

“You what?”

“I didn’t!” Harry glowered, fists curling at his sides. “I just said that, didn’t I?” He demanded and Draco looked at Theo, who only raised an eyebrow.

“Of _course_ not. My apologies, Potter,” he murmured and dipped his head. “Weasley,” he acknowledged, “I’ll see you at school, Draco, alright?” He smiled warmly. Draco opened his mouth to ask where he was going so soon, but noticed another figure walking up.

“Theodore. Mother and father told you-” Winston started, but Theo cut him off with a wave of his hand.

“I’m coming. Don’t be such a nag,” he rolled his eyes at his brother. “Bye.”

“Bye,” Draco smiled back weakly and jutted his chin out at the older Nott. “Winston,” he spoke coolly, and the older boy stared down at him. He looked quite a bit like Theo with his black hair and green eyes. The only difference was while Theo was unkept and quite honestly a bit of a mess, Winston always had his hair slicked back meticulously and was the pinnacle of well dressed.

“Draco,” Winston greeted cautiously and sighed. “I’m sorry to hear about your recent fall from grace. You were a promising heir,” he grimaced in such a way that Draco truly believed he regretted hearing about what happened.

“Winston!” Theo snapped sharply.

“I’m a very promising candidate for many things,” Draco cut in smoothly, “I’m sure I’ll recover with the grace I managed to retain,” he smiled, and Winston gave a soft huff of amusement before looking at Theo and jerking his head.

“Come on.”

Harry made a noise as they left.

“What a prick.” 

“I like him,” Draco shrugged and his friends stared at him. “What?”

“You’re so weird,” Ron said as Hermione sighed. Draco frowned at them, but didn’t respond as he picked up his things. Andromeda was calling him over, asking if there was anything else he needed. Draco glanced over, eyes flickering over their bags before shaking his head. “What’s this about you using magic outside of school?” He added and Harry grumbled before giving a bitter rendition of what sounded like a delightful dinner party at the Dursleys.

“Dobby?” Draco asked when he had finished, “He works for my family.”

Everyone stopped to stare at him.

“He… does?” Harry asked slowly. Draco wasn’t sure why they all looked so shocked. His family had plenty of house elves. Dobby in particular had always been a loose cannon, “Did you send him?” He asked suspiciously.

“No,” Draco said thoughtfully, “I’m not actually sure what would happen if I gave him orders now,” he mused, mulling over the idea. “Maybe my father sent him to spy on you,” he added.

“Or maybe he sent Dobby to look after _you.”_

“Oh, yeah, sure. That’s why he showed up to your muggle house,” Draco said and rolled his eyes. Idiot. Harry sneered back. “Let me try… Dobby?” He called and waited. Nothing. “Dobby, I need you to carry these for me,” he said, holding out one of his boxes. Nothing. “Yeah, I guess he doesn’t listen to me anymore,” he deduced. Ron frowned.

“Maybe your father sent him as revenge. He could think Harry is the reason you were sorted into Gryffindor,” he said and Draco paused. That was actually a pretty reasonable conclusion. He turned to ask Hermione what she thought of that only to find the girl frowning.

“...how exactly do house elves work?” She said slowly.

Oh no.

* * *

They missed the train. 

They _missed the train._

No, they didn’t just miss the train. They missed the train and decided to take a _flying car to school_. Draco was so horrifically embarrassed for them (and himself for even knowing them) that he pretty much decided immediately this school year was going to be horrid… at least the howler was funny.

“Oh, that’s a good idea,” Draco mused as Ron sunk lower into his seat, face burning at the shrieking letter tearing itself up, “I should write my aunt Andromeda and have her send you one, Harry.”

“ _Do not-”_ Harry began, but Draco was already making a note to send the letter. Hermione didn’t even attempt to defend him as Harry desperately began to kick at Draco under the table in an attempt to sway him. 

“What? Ron got a howler _and_ a broken wand,” he said, gesturing to where Ron was glumly staring at his wand with a pout at his lips, “You got off lightly by comparison - don’t point that thing at me,” he added when Ron pointed at Draco in agreement with the aforementioned wand.

“It’s not that bad-”

“It is,” Draco assured him and considered. He wasn’t technically disowned _yet_. Maybe he should consider emptying his bank account while there was still time. Then he could help the poor weasel out. “Come on, we need to get to Herbology,” he said, stretching as he stood up.

“Yeah, alr - oh, _no_ ,” Harry hissed and slid in his seat as a flash followed them. Draco paused, baffled. Was that… a _camera?_ He blinked a few times before turning to Harry for an explanation.

“A first year,” he mumbled, “He won’t leave me alone.”

Fate could not have chosen a worse person to make famous. Sighing, Draco looked from this pathetic excuse of a celebrity to where the bounding bundle of energy was skipping up with wide eyes and opened his mouth.

“Draco,” Hermione jumped in and led him away, “Let’s go,” she said as she pulled at his arm. Draco rolled his eyes. Fine, fine. Harry and Ron fumbled after them, listening as Hermione started their pre-lecture about mandrakes. Half the time, Draco wasn’t sure why they turned up to classes. Hermione covered everything just fine in his opinion.

He also had adopted a new attitude this year towards the House Cup. If they were going to win, Draco would ensure they win _honorably._ None of that nonsense Dumbledore pulled last year with those half-wit points. Draco and Hermione were by far the brightest of their year. Between the two of them they could pull together enough points to win without any assistance, thank-you-very-much. 

And they did _phenomenally._ Between herbology, transfiguration, and charms they had caused a surge in house points, much to his approval. The Slytherins sneered at him - possibly realizing Draco had moved on to fully embracing his house. They didn’t want him? Fine. He would make them realize how much they were missing out on. 

Defense, however, was… not great. Lockhart. They got _Lockhart_ to teach. It was a bloody joke and not even one he could seethe to Hermione about.

“...clearly he’s brilliant, Draco. Have you even read his book?” She asked when he tried to point out that the man was like the walking equivalent to a rather disappointing cake, but she would have none of it.

“Don’t worry,” Ron told him after their first lesson, which led to an apparent rebellion of cornish pixies, “I think he’s a moron too.” 

“At least that’s one thing we can agree on,” Draco sighed as they dragged their feet to potions.

He had hoped his introduction to the quidditch team might have cheered him up. Wrong. McGonagall had agreed to let him on the team - which was thrilling - but this was almost immediately halted by his first practice going awry.

“We booked the pitch!” Wood seethed. Ron and Hermione had inched forward towards the group, curiously watching as Harry and Draco exchanged irritated looks when Donovan touted his letter from Severus.

“He may not have stolen the stone,” Harry muttered, “But he’s still a nightmare.”

“Watch it,” Draco threw back. Harry only shook his head. 

“What new seeker are you even training?” Wood growled out. Draco inwardly sighed. He knew Montague was already on the team, but dearly hoped it wasn’t someone else in their year. As it was, the Slytherins could be difficult to deal with. He couldn’t bare if it were Blaise or -

“Pansy?” He asked, voice rising in alarm when the others shuffled to the side. The girl smirked, jutting out her chin with an air of pride as she looked around. Draco tried to keep his reactions to minimal. He didn’t care. He _didn’t care_. He already knew his and Pansy’s friendship had expired. This meant nothing. 

“Draco,” she drawled out and tilted her head, “I must say I was surprised to learn you had lowered yourself enough to actually play alongside such… questionable teammates,” she said and tilted her head, “Really, I didn’t think Andromeda would wear you down so fast.”

“Nah,” Montague said, leaning against his own broom to angle himself forward, “It’s the mudblood. I see her bossing him around everywhere,” he said and immediately the group bristled. Hermione clenched her jaw, puffing out her chest the way she always did when she was defensive about something. It took Draco a few seconds to realize why.

Ah. Mudblood. Right. That wasn’t a good word around this crowd. He still didn’t quite get it… It was just a word. Hermione tried to explain it to him several times, but each time she just got more and more upset. Then Ron tried to explain and got mad. Harry seemed just as lost as Draco was… but for different reasons, probably. 

Oh, well, while he couldn’t figure out _that_ word, he still knew some other fun terms that would surely work in his favor. 

“Oh, Pansy…” He smiled and tilted his head, “If you want to speak of disappointing blood lineage, then maybe we should talk about how you’re an iceblood.” 

The reaction was pretty instant. All the Slytherins hissed, while Pansy went white - eyes widening at Draco. For a second he regretted seeing the hurt on her face, but immediately pushed it aside. A few of the Gryffindors frowned at the word, but surprisingly it was Ron who made a choking sound.

“Draco,” he said, sounding somewhere between shocked and slightly impressed. He shrugged.

“Did you not know?” Draco asked calmly. Pansy flinched, but was immediately pulled away by Montague whipping out his wand. 

“Maybe you should learn your place, you filthy mudlover-”

“Watch your _mouth_ , Montague,” Ron snapped back and pulled out his own wand, “Or maybe I’ll fill your mouth with mud.”

“Keep your fellow bloodtraitor in check,” Montague sneered, “He’s already shamed his family enough associating with you lot. Especially you and your filthy, muggle-loving little-”

Whatever else Montague was about to say was cut off by Ron swearing loudly before thrusting his wand forward. His broken wand. That was being held together by _spellotape_. Draco really needed to work on logic and reasoning with him. 

Predictably, the spell backfired, throwing him into the ground with a thud. The Slytherins roared with laughter… yeah, Draco didn’t exactly blame them there. 

“Ronald,” Draco sighed as Harry and Hermione both gasped in horror before launching forward. “Is he alright?” He asked and Ron threw up a slug. “...great,” he mumbled and handed his broom to Wood. “I guess we’re doing this now,” he muttered.

Another flash caught his attention. Draco narrowed his eyes.

“Not now, Colin!” Harry hissed as the first year clicked his camera. Seriously? He was going to take photos of someone being ill? Sighing, he stepped forward.

“...you really have no idea how to deal with people, do you?” Draco shook his head before walking over and yanking the camera from Creevey’s grasp. Hermione made a noise of protest as he held it up with a firm glare.

“Hey-” Colin started, but fell silent under the weight of Draco’s glare.

“Take one more picture in front of me, and I will shatter this,” he warned and leaned in slightly, “Also, if you keep being annoying, I’ll shatter your skull too,” he promised lowly, watching with a stab of satisfaction as Creevey went white.

"He doesn’t mean it-” Hermione started.

“I do,” Draco whispered.

“He does,” Harry agreed, “Come on. We need to get him to Hagrid,” he added as if there wasn’t a perfectly good hospital wing inside the school. Whatever. Don’t mind him. 

“What was it you called Pansy?” Hermione asked when they finally situated Ron with a bucket and some pats on the back. “I’ve heard of a 'mudblood', but…” She fixed him with a baffled look, lips pressed into a line that was ready to turn into a disappointed frown at any moment.

“Ah,” Draco frowned and rubbed the back of his neck. Before he could explain, Ron looked up with a shake of his head.

“How early do they _test_ you?” He asked in disgust. Draco blinked. Huh. That had been the last thing he was expecting him to ask.

“I got tested before I went to Hogwarts. So did Pansy. The younger you are, the better chances there are that healers can fix something that is wrong,” he said and tilted his head, “How old did you think we were?” He asked as Ron coughed.

“I don’t know… an adult maybe?” He said and made another face, “It’s gross,” he said. Draco wasn’t sure if he was talking about the slugs or the conversation they were having.

“What is?” Harry asked impatiently. Draco sighed.

“Fertility testing,” he said, and both Harry and Hermione froze to stare openly at him. Hagrid grimaced, but didn’t comment as he served them all some of his rock cakes.

“...what?” Harry finally asked, sounding dumbfounded. “Like, seeing if you can have kids?” He frowned. 

“In the future, obviously,” Draco said, feeling oddly defensive. “It’s just a spell that says how likely you are to have problems. It happens more often than you'd think-”

“All the inbreeding, probably,” Ron muttered. Draco kicked his leg.

“-and sometimes you can get treated so it won’t be a problem. People would have found out about Pansy eventually,” he added, “I mean, she won’t be able to find a good marriage-”

“Oh my _God,”_ Hermione said and put a hand over her mouth, “Stop. Stop it,” she told him and looked over at an equally concerned Harry. “So… they test you as _children_ to see if you can have kids when you grow up and based on the results they marry you off to one another?” She asked. Draco paused. Then nodded. Yeah, that sounded about right. “That’s horrible!”

“And so iceblood is like a word that means she can’t have kids?”

“Yeah, like freezing her bloodline,” Draco said, “It’s a big deal - especially since she’s one of the last Parkinsons and her family is one of the sacred twenty-eight,” he explained, “Her and I got tested together so I was there when she found out. She was devastated.” 

“Wait,” Hagrid interrupted and looked Draco over, “You called her that in front of everyone?”

“Yes.”

“Draco, that is awful! How could you say that to her?” Hermione said, tugging at her hair. Draco threw up his hands. They were never _happy_ . “And… did nobody else know? Did you just tell _everyone_ that? It’s so personal. Draco, you have to apologize-”

“I don’t understand what’s happening,” Draco said and looked around, “She called you a mudblood. I called her an iceblood. It is called reciprocation.”

“No,” Hermione said, “It is called lowering yourself to their level.”

“In all fairness,” Ron muttered, “It was bold of us to think he was ever above them,” he said, and Draco pointed at him in agreement. At least someone understood. “Not a compliment, mate,” Ron added before throwing up some more.

“I don’t think I did anything wrong,” Draco grumbled, slumping against the wall. “You don’t like the muggle hating term. You don’t like the pureblood hating term. I don’t know what I can say anymore,” he pouted. Hagrid grimaced and patted his leg.

“Perhaps try not to say awful things to anyone,” he suggested. Draco stared. They knew him for an entire year… over a year now! What kind of person did they expect him to be? Hermione’s expression told him that whatever it was he was not succeeding. 

“Fine,” he sniffed, crossing his arms over his chest, “I won’t defend you next time.” 

“Draco,” Ron groaned and propped his head up on the bucket. The gagging was becoming less frequent now, giving him a bit more time to talk, “Take it from someone who knows - it isn’t always about winning. You have to be the better person sometimes.”

Draco stared.

“Maybe we should phrase it differently,” Harry suggested with a tilt of his head, “Sometimes you don’t have to be the worst,” he tried and when Draco remained silent, shook his head. “I’ve done all I can,” he informed them all stoically.

“One day,” Draco told him, “I hope you can be as funny as you think you are,” he said and Harry made a face at him. “We should probably go. If Ronnie here is done chucking up slugs, he should probably get to his detention now,” he added, yanking at Ron’s ears as he passed. Hermione stood up - firm ire in her eyes. “...we’re not done talking about the iceblood thing, are we?” He sighed. 

“Not a chance,” she replied.

* * *

Harry denied it, but Draco was pretty sure this deathday party was a punishment for calling Pansy a ‘horrible, truly awful’ name. Hermione had lectured him over the matter for a solid two days, which included a brief history of why the words were bad, how using it as a counter was still terrible, and all the social implications it has on the worth of others.

“It’s not just about Pansy,” Hermione had said while Draco hit his head repeatedly on the table during breakfast, “It is about categorizing people and limiting them by trivial things.”

It had been a long week. In the end, while Draco decidedly did not fully understand why she was so upset, he knew enough to satisfy her and promised not to call Pansy (or anyone else) an iceblood again. 

Then, because he was hated by his friends, _this_ happened. 

“You know,” Draco said as he looked around the room dejectedly, “We pass by our deathday every year without anybody fussing.”

“That’s because nobody knows when you’re going to die, Draco,” Hermione said with that tight, exasperated voice he was beginning to notice was reserved only for him… a ridiculous notion, really. Draco was the least exasperating of their group.

“I know when mine is,” he grumbled, “Today. Possibly in ten minutes.” 

“Draco kind of has a point,” Ron grumbled, “I want to go to the feast,” he said, looking at the rotting food piled on the table. Draco shook his head.

“I agree with you a lot more than I thought I would,” Draco said with a slight shake of his head. “I don’t think we should - ah, Sir Nicholas,” Draco interrupted himself to smile politely at the ghost. “This is a splendid party. I love all the decorations,” he smiled. Nick brightened at the compliment. 

“You think so? I do hope the Headless Hunt might share your thoughts, young Mr. Malfoy,” he mused, and Draco reached very deep into his soul to whip out the smile his mother always wore when she was forced into dinner parties. 

“You know, one might say you are even more qualified than them in the matters of beheading,” Draco told him with a slight shrug, “Forty-five hacks? I bet most of them only needed one or two to take their heads off,” he sniffed as Nicholas gave a fierce nod of agreement. “I bet they are only bitter that their deaths were so much less spectacular,” he said. Nick beamed.

“I quite like how your mind works,” he mused and frowned, “Do you think you all could say a thing or two? It would be so awfully impressive-”

“Sir Nicholas,” Draco tutted, “We couldn’t dare impose on your special day. This is your five hundredth deathday, is it not? Perhaps, it would be even more telling for you to barely acknowledge us at all. Just to show how casual you regard a famous, living wizard such as Harry Potter himself showing up to your event,” he reasoned. Nick waved a finger at him, giving slight hums of approval.

“Yes…” he murmured, “Yes, yes! You’re a good one, my boy. Good. I will continue to greet my guests then - please, know I am so pleased you all came even if I don’t speak to you again,” he said, and Draco placed a hand over his heart to show 'no hard feelings'. He waited until Nicholas floated off again to turn to the others.

“Yeah, so anyway. This sucks and I want to go eat now,” he informed them all. Ron stared.

“You truly are a terrifying thing, aren’t you?” He asked and gave Draco’s arm a small poke, “I mean, are you even _human?_ Or do you just pretend?” He asked and gave a snort of amusement when Draco slapped his hand away. He waited for Harry to also chip in, but when he turned, Harry was staring at the walls in bafflement.

“Harry?”

“Do you hear it?” He asked, turning towards them with a frown, “You hear it, right?”

Oh dear. Not the voices. Draco gave Hermione a worried look. They had both been silently investigating Harry and the sudden whispers he had begun to hear. Draco’s theory is that he could talk to the dead (well, other than ghosts kind of dead). After all, there had to be _some_ sort of side effect to getting hit with the killing curse, right? 

“Um, no,” Ron told him bluntly. Harry scowled before heading towards the wall and pressing his ear up against it.

“Oh - don’t… we’re in public,” Draco sighed as Harry went about keeping his head pressed to the wall as he continued walking away from them. “I guess we’re doing this now,” he said before marching after him with a scowl. Ron and Hermione dashed after him.

“Harry. Harry, maybe we shouldn’t be following these voices,” Hermione said as they rounded a corner. Harry ignored her. Naturally. Draco thought about making a comment, but paused when he saw how serious Harry’s face had gone. Maybe… maybe they should be taking him to the hospital wing. 

“It’s… It’s saying 'kill',” Harry told them, eyes widening. “It wants to rip something? I… this way!” He said, turning sharply. Draco opened his mouth to respond only for a sharp noise to capture his attention. Like a… low hissing sound? He frowned, looking around before shaking the thought away. As a child, he loved hunting snakes to release in their gardens. He had developed quite an ear for them - even pretending to be a parseltongue on occasion. There were probably a few lose ones strolling around.

“Harry!” Ron called, and he looked up to see the others had gotten ahead of him - sprinting after Harry, who was pushing forward. “Harry, we should-” 

Whatever Ron was about to say was cut off. Draco frowned, following as Hermione gave a small gasp of horror. Draco sighed. Was he going to have to kill another spider? Ron was a baby around them, but Harry also never volunteered to kill the damn things when they came about. He had hoped Hermione might be -

Oh, okay. Nope. Wasn’t a spider. That was definitely blood… and Filch’s cat. 

_The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir... beware._

* * *

When Draco said he wanted to play quidditch this year, he had imagined… you know. Playing quidditch. Not this nonsense. Harry, as usual, was in the midst of trouble. He wasn’t sure why nobody was stopping the game considering that bludger was clearly out for him. The weasel twins were doing their best, admittedly, but Draco could tell their guarding was irritating Harry. 

Great. He looked around and dove forward to shove Montague as hard as he could before stealing the quaffle. He had been looking forward to this game… showing Slytherin what they were missing out on. Now he was distracted by his idiot of a friend almost getting massacred - _again_. Why couldn’t he just stay out of trouble?

“Malfoy has the quaffle. Good move. Good dodge - _and that’s a bleeding foul!”_ Lee’s voice hissed over the intercom as Montague appeared from nowhere to ram into him from behind. He gave a hiss of pain, but looked away to see the bludger coming for Harry again. 

Harry, for his part, seemed more preoccupied with shouting at Montague than watching the bludger. He spurred his broom forward to grab at his arm, yanking him back in the nick of time as the bludger zipped past.

“Oh,” Harry blinked as he frowned after it, “Thank you.” 

“Pay _attention,_ scarhead!” He snapped and flicked his forehead. Harry pouted, but gave a small nod as Madam Hooch tossed the quaffle back into play. If Draco thought he could refocus on the match, then he was sorely mistaken. 

“Another close call by Potter out there… Oh, and Malfoy passed the quaffle up again. Very unlike of him,” Lee said as Draco spun around to see the bludger still chasing him. Really, it was only Harry’s talent in weaving that was keeping him from getting hit. He turned to Madam Hooch in frustration.

“Do you plan on doing anything about that?” He yelled. There were some other things he wanted to shout, but was distracted by Harry suddenly diving down with the bludger following close behind. 

“It looks as though Potter has caught sight of the snitch!”

“Oh, come _on_ ,” Draco said, internally praying that Harry might realize he would have to choose between winning the match and getting pummeled to death… and… yep. Yep, there it was. He was choosing the snitch. Bloody idiot. 

“Malfoy!” Wood shouted after him with a gesture towards the quaffle, “Play!” 

How was it that Draco was the only responsible one on this pitch? Groaning, he pointed his broom down, diving between Harry and the damn bludger. He didn’t have a beater on hand, but figured he could come up with something. 

“Looks as though Malfoy is blocking Potter so he can catch the snitch. Um, I don’t quite see how he plans - _oh!”_ Lee shouted when Draco brought out his wand. Was it against the rules? Yes. Was this maybe escalating beyond what the rules could handle? Also, _yes._

“IF HE USES IT, THEN IT’S A FOUL!” Someone shouted. Draco could have shouted something in return, but paused when Harry fumbled forward, fingers brushing wings. The bludger ricocheted - zipping towards Harry’s hand.

“ _Put your hand down!”_ Draco yelled. Part of him was amazed at how quickly Harry listened as he gripped the broom, letting the bludger shoot by before reaching out again. It seemed even that close call wasn’t enough to deter him. He was close… maybe he could make it. 

“He’s inches away, ladies and gentlemen… Malfoy hasn’t used his wand yet, so there is no foul… The bludger is coming back! Look out!” Lee shouted right as Harry’s hand closed around the snitch. Draco grimaced and shoved him to the side, sending him spiraling away right as the bludger made impact with Draco’s shoulder. There was a sharp pain that radiated through his shoulder as he fell. He was lucky they were both close to the ground because he found himself falling so that he rolled across the grass as someone screamed. 

“HE’S CAUGHT THE SNITCH!” Lee cried out as the crowd shouted, “Potter and Malfoy are both down-” he said, and Draco only had a moment to register the bludger coming back before it burst into flames. He groaned. 

“Someone couldn’t have done that sooner?” He said and hissed in pain when he tried to sit up. The world went a little blurry. Figures moved around him.

“Draco? Draco, can you hear me?”

“Hi,” he whispered and then blinked a few times, “Where is that _idiot?”_ He added as an afterthought and sat up, wincing at the pain shooting through his shoulder. Ron and Hermione were suddenly there. Harry was to the side - eyes wide and the snitch still in hand, looking torn between outraged and horrified. 

“Me?!” He gasped, correctly deducing he was the idiot in question. “You’re the one who took a bludger for me!”

“ _Who keeps playing with a tampered bludger?!”_ Draco shouted back and cringed, “Ah,” he choked and Hermione’s hand pressed against his leg. “It… It’s okay… I think I shattered my shoulder,” he managed.

“Harry, are you okay?” Hermione asked, looking over at him.

“I think my wrist is sprained,” Harry nodded and Draco glowered.

“Oh, is it?” He snapped. Harry winced. He gave a quiet sorry as more people rushed onto the pitch. Lockhart seemed to be leading the charge, practically sprinting to them with wails of outrage. These people were damn lucky he wasn’t in contact with his father. He wondered if Andromeda had any pull with the ministry. Maybe she could sue them for him.

“Let me see, let me see-” Lockhart said and Draco shook his head.

“If you touch me, I will bite you,” he warned as Harry knelt by him.

“Um, my wrist hurts if you want to look at that,” he told Lockhart, not looking too thrilled by the idea. Draco was grateful for the misdirection though. Lockhart immediately latched onto him, examining the wrist for a moment before nodding solemnly. 

“It is broken,” he announced.

“I really think it’s just sprained-”

“Don’t you worry, Harry. I’ll mend it in a heartbeat,” Lockhart said. The entire group began to object - though none more loudly than Harry himself as Lockhart tapped his wand against his wrist. There was a long pause that left Draco wondering if anything even happened. 

“...it doesn’t hurt anymore,” Harry finally said and Draco frowned.

“Can you move it?” He asked. 

“No,” Harry told him numbly. Ron reached over and touched it. The arm immediately wiggled around like rubber, causing everyone to gasp in horror. Draco sighed. Bloody Lockhart. Solemnly, Harry turned to Draco. “It looks like we’re even,” he said with an air of calmness that suggested he was either in shock or just tired of these ridiculous events in general. Both seemed equally likely at this point.

“You always just have to outdo me, don’t you, scarhead?”

* * *

Draco was having a long week. Luckily, he was able to get fixed up rather quickly by Madam Pomphrey. That was good. However, what wasn’t as good was learning the next day from Harry (who had to stay in the hospital wing to regrow his bones) that his old house elf was trying to kill his friend. Then, upon entering the dueling club - something that should have been _fun_ \- it was discovered that Harry James Potter - Gryffindor extraordinaire - could talk to snakes.

So, yeah. Draco was having a long week. 

It had been fun up until that point. Harry and Draco ended up together with Lockhart advising Harry. Severus must have felt bad for Draco because he came over to pretty much tell him how to knock Harry off his feet.

“Scared, Potter?” He had asked as they stood facing one another with their wands held up in front of them. Harry smirked back with the confidence of someone who had not just been advised by the world’s biggest idiot. 

“You wish,” he threw back, and Draco tried not to laugh at how badly he was going to be obliterated. Then, of course, it all backfired when the snake enchantment Severus had suggested revealed some surprising talents. 

“How could you not mention that you can talk to snakes?”

“I thought it was a normal wizard thing!” Harry defended as Draco tried hard - very hard - not to start yelling. Instead, he put a hand over his mouth before trying to speak again as calmly and rationally as he could.

“Did you? By any chance, do you happen to talk to owls? Toads? Horses? Dogs?” Draco asked, and when Harry shook his head, threw up his hands, “Then why _did you think snakes were normal?!”_ He asked and threw a biscuit at his head. “You make me unreasonably angry,” he informed him. 

“Harry,” Hermione began slowly, taking a long breath as she closed the book she was reading to stare at him solemnly, “Parselmouths aren’t… well, it is said to be a mark of a dark wizard-” She began, but was cut off by Draco snorting. “It _is!”_

“Come off it. No, it isn’t,” he said and Hermione crossed her arms. “Slytherin could talk to snakes-”

“My point exactly. He put a monster in here to kill muggleborns, didn’t he?” She asked and Draco took a long breath.

“Have you considered, in all of your wise reading and research, that Salazar Slytherin lived in the tenth century?” He asked and tilted his head, “Do you know what muggles _did_ to witches and wizards in the tenth century?” He asked. That gave the group a small pause. “I’m not saying it was right of him to put a monster in the castle, but I think it is understandable.”

“Yes,” Hermione shot back hotly, “Imagine a poor muggleborn trying to escape a family wanting to burn them alive, only to be chased away by a murderous beast-”

“I’m a parselmouth?” Harry interrupted, effectively ending the argument. Draco ran a hand over his face.

“Look, do you believe in fate? Destiny? Any of that divination stuff?” He asked and Hermione immediately shook her head. Harry and Ron both looked at one another before shrugging. “If you don’t, then you have nothing to worry about because there is nothing inherent in you to make you light or dark. You have choices, scarhead. Make good ones,” he said and went back to his Charms essay. 

“But… what if that stuff is real?” Harry said cautiously, wringing his hands. “I mean, my wand is supposed to be a brother to Voldemort's,” he said. Ron cringed at the name, but said nothing. Draco considered for a moment and then kicked him. Hard. “ _Ow-”_ Harry yelped, shuffling away with a betrayed look. 

“You defeated the Dark Lord. Twice. Stop talking nonsense,” Draco told him and rolled his eyes, “Are you the Heir of Slytherin?” He asked. Harry slowly shook his head. “There you go then. It’s done,” he said and dipped his quill in some ink, “Maybe you should find the real Heir if this is bothering you so badly.”

Really, Draco should have known better.

“You’re right!”

God, no. Why did he never learn?

“Seriously?” He asked, “You want to hunt down whoever opened the chamber just to clear your name?”

“Also, to stop people from getting petrified,” Hermione added and Draco waved her away.

“Yeah, that too,” he dismissed and Hermione glowered at him, “What exactly is the game plan for how you plan to do this?” He asked. Ron and Harry slowly turned to where Hermione had pulled out a few more books. She paused when all eyes fell on her. 

“...let me guess,” Draco said when she opened her mouth, “Restricted section of the library?”

He really needed to consider better friends.

* * *

This was a stupid idea. Draco wanted to make sure it was known he thought this was a stupid idea. He _told_ the others it was useless to sneak into the Slytherin common room. Harry was adamant that either Pansy or one of the other ‘Slytherin gits’ was the Heir of Slytherin. 

“I mean,” Ron reasoned as Draco bitterly stared at the bubbling potion, “It is the Heir of _Slytherin,_ so whoever it is obviously is in Slytherin.” 

Draco hated that he couldn’t come up with a good argument for that.

“Didn’t stop everyone from thinking it was Harry,” he said under his breath as an attempt anyway. Ron shrugged.

“And those people are morons.”

...Ron was getting smarter. It bothered Draco immensely. 

“Fine,” Draco said as Hermione stirred the potion a few times, “But I get to be Montague. Crabbe and Goyle don’t talk much, so it’s better if you two go as them,” he reasoned and turned to Hermione, “You can’t go as Pansy if we think it’s her-”

“Oh, I got mine!” She said brightly and held up a bottle, “Millicent Bullstrode. Grabbed it when she tackled me,” she said and tucked it back into her pocket. Draco stared. She was really resourceful, wasn’t she? Honestly, if it wasn’t for her heritage, he was pretty sure she would have been a stellar Slytherin. 

“Alright,” he said and shrugged. “Then we can do this, and you can see how wrong you are,” he said simply and turned to Myrtle. “Do you think this is stupid?” He asked her. She wailed loudly and Draco nodded. Seemed as good enough an answer as any.

When the day finally came, Draco had to admit he was a little… well, it wasn’t _nervous_ , but… he was rather curious about what the Slytherin common room was like. The life he almost had. His parents often used to describe it to him as a child. He wondered if it looked anything as he imagined it. 

“Be careful,” Hermione reminded them as she handed a cup to each of them, “We’re on a time limit.” 

Draco was pretty sure this would take a solid ten minutes, so he wasn’t terribly worried. Grabbing the smaller of the uniforms, he waited until the other three had disappeared into stalls to turn back towards the mirror. He paused, looking at the uniforms for a moment and the potion in his hand. Looking over his shoulder, he slipped on the green and stared at himself for a moment. It didn’t quite fit right (given they weren’t his) but… the color suited him well. Sighing, he knocked the potion back.

For those wishing to try polyjuice potion… don’t. The experience was not pleasant. 

Even more tragic was that at the end of it all, he looked like _Montague._

“I’m hideous,” he decided and there was a snort from behind him. “Ah, so are you,” he said, turning around to find Goyle behind him. “Take your glasses off, idiot,” he sighed. Ron fell out of the stall behind him - giving a slight cry of alarm when he saw his own reflection.

“It worked… God, this better wear off and not leave any remnant of Crabbe on me,” he grimaced. Draco grinned.

“What are you talking about you? You look the same to me,” he said. Ron turned to give him a sarcastic smile that looked incredibly out of place on Crabbe’s face. The boy probably wouldn’t know sarcasm if it hit him in the face.

“Hermione? You ready?” Harry called as he walked over to shove Draco playfully. In response, Draco tried to yank at his hair only to find (most tragically) that Harry was now taller than him. Perhaps he realized this because he gave Draco the most terrifying smile before shoving him again. Swearing, he almost didn’t hear Hermione reply.

“I think you better go without me,” she squeaked. The three paused. 

“Why?” Ron frowned, “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine. Just… just go ahead. You’re running out of time,” she said. Harry shook his head.

“We don’t want to leave you-”

“Go!” Hermione said sharply, making them all jump. The three looked at one another, silently mulling over the options. In truth, Draco didn’t think there were many options outside of doing what Hermione said. 

“Come on,” he finally prompted them and yanked at Ron’s arm, “Let’s go.”

When Draco was little, his parents had told him all the secret passageways and routes to get to and from the Slytherin common room to basically anywhere in the castle. Draco even remembered his father bringing him a map of Hogwarts at one point so he could color in all the places he planned to go for when the time arrived. That meant getting there wasn’t too much trouble. 

“Is there a password?” Ron whispered lowly with a hint of panic coloring his tone. Draco glanced back, trying to remember what his parents told him. A password didn’t seem right. Ravenclaws were said to have riddles... Hufflepuffs that silly knocking technique…. Gryffindors were the ones who would think of foolish nonsense like passwords…

“Pureblood?” Draco tried and the stone wall shifted, stones changing to a door. Harry gave a slight gasp of surprise.

“How did you know?” He asked and then made a face, “That’s an awful password.” He added, wrinkling his nose. Draco shrugged. 

“It isn’t a password. You just say your blood-status, I think. If you had said half-blood it would have worked just as well… I’m actually not sure what would happen if a muggleborn tried to get through. It might have been another way Slytherin tried to keep them from getting sorted in his house.” He mused and then gave a nod, “Clever, actually.”

“Or they would have had to call themselves mudbloods to get in.” Harry said with a disgusted shake of his head.

“You do see how that’s worse though, right?” Ron asked, pinching Draco’s arm. “I need you to acknowledge that is worse.”

“That is worse.” Draco murmured for the sake of pacifying him and pushed the door open.

The Slytherin common room was _beautiful._ Draco was immediately entranced by the glass separating them from the lake. One girl was pressed up against the glass, smiling as she used her hands to signal various items to a mermaid, who was also nodding eagerly to whatever they were talking about. **  
**

“Ay!” Someone yelled and Draco turned to find Lucian Bole laughing hysterically as he dashed across the common room. “GIVE IT BACK, YOU EVIL GIT!” Came a high-pitched shriek as an older girl slid into the room with her wand out.

“Elaine thinks Marcus Flint has _beautiful_ eyes!” Bole swooned, holding up a book high above his head. Elaine scowled and flicked her wand so the book went flying out of his hand. From where he was lying in one of the couches, Marcus sat up quickly, spilling his forgotten homework everywhere.

“You do?” 

“It’s my Herbology textbook, you _mailman_ ,” she hissed and Draco scoffed. He had forgotten. Theo said it was a running joke in the house to call one another muggle jobs as an insult. Marcus pouted as he fell back onto the couch with a small oof. 

“Well, I think _you_ have beautiful eyes,” he said. Elaine paused to look down at him for a moment before rolling her eyes… though that did nothing to hide the smile on her face as she left the room. Marcus’ gaze followed her dotingly. “Does anyone want to play Exploding Snap?” He asked as another older student passed by.

“No, because you _cheat_ ,” he told him and knelt next to the girl still placed by the glass wall, “Lyra, you have to do your potions essay eventually,” he prompted and the girl groaned.

“But-”

“Snape can be understanding, but he won’t accept late work. Go on,” the boy said and the girl sighed, giving the mermaid a sad wave before dramatically dragging her bag behind her. Pansy shoved her as she passed. 

“ _There_ you are!” She said upon seeing Draco and the others, “Come on. What did you find?” She asked, grabbing Draco’s hand and pulling him impatiently towards one of the couches by the fire. Harry and Ron hesitantly followed, picking their own seats surrounding a table. “Well?” She asked impatiently.

“...find what?” Ron asked and Draco nodded to himself. Yep. Crabbe and Goyle were a perfect fit for these two. Pansy only sighed at what probably was a stupid question.

“Potter,” she said and Draco hummed. “Is he the Heir of Slytherin or not?”

Ron choked - which was really impressive because he wasn’t eating or drinking anything.

“ _Potter?!”_ Harry asked and Draco jumped in before they could make a bigger mess of things.

“I can’t believe you too believe those silly rumors, Pansy,” Draco sighed, shaking his head. He wasn’t sure why Harry was surprised. Lots of people did think he was the Heir. This wasn’t news. Fred and George Weasley relished in this fact… perhaps it was the idea that Slytherins themselves were considering him for the role. “Just the fact that he's a parseltongue means nothing.”

“Graham Montague,” Pansy scowled, leaning back in her chair, “You are beginning to sound like our resident bloodtraitor,” she grumbled, pressing a finger to her temple, “I - _Winston!”_ She called and Draco straightened up to see that Winston had taken the place of the little girl from earlier, making polite smalltalk with the mermaid. “Tell me, who does your bloodtraitor brother think the Heir is?” She asked. Winston turned to her with cold eyes. 

“Perhaps watch how you speak of my family, Parkinson,” he said in a tone so cool and firm that it had Pansy faltering, “And feel free to ask Theodore yourself,” he added before picking up his things and giving a polite nod to the mermaid. Draco noticed Harry staring at it openly - eyes wide and alarmed. Huh. He wouldn’t have ever seen a mermaid before, would he? 

“Nevermind that,” Pansy dismissed, tossing her hair over her shoulder, “I’ve been thinking about Draco Malfoy recently,” she said.

“Oh no,” Ron sighed and Pansy glared at him.

“Don’t worry, Vincent, it won’t require too much thinking on your part,” she scoffed, “I only wish to teach him a small lesson in manners-”

“Hey,” a voice said and Draco spun around. Oh no. Oh _no_. He felt panic flicker to life in his chest as Theodore Nott himself marched into the room with a deep-set scowl and smelling of peaches for some reason. Was it weird to notice he smelled of peaches? Maybe. Draco wasn’t going to read into it much. “Watch your mouth, Parkinson,” he snapped and tossed his bag down.

“Oh, here we go,” Pansy grumbled, pinching the bridge of her nose, “Why are you still defending him, Theo? He’s a bloodtraitor. Not unlike yourself,” she said, whispering the last part lowly. 

“He can’t help what house he was sorted into,” Theo threw back and sat on the plush couch next to Draco. “It isn’t like he’s changed from how we knew him as kids. He’s still smart. Still funny. Still just as… good as he’s always been.”

Good? Theo thought he was _good?_ What a strange turn of events. Despite himself, Draco felt his face turn red.

“…sure, Theo,” Pansy sighed as Daphne skipped by, leaning in to poke her head into the group.

“Sounds like someone has a _crush!”_ She sang and then bolted off again. Pansy made a noise of disgust as both Ron and Harry’s eyes widened in alarm.

“No, he doesn’t!” Draco spluttered out before he could stop himself. Theo turned to him. Damnit. He was such a mess right now, God. “Um, right? Because he’s a… you know. You’re – well, you’re both technically purebloods-” he stuttered out. Theo shrugged.

“It doesn’t really matter,” Theo interrupted, saving Draco from making a bigger idiot of himself, “We’re twelve and probably going to be married off anyway. Well, I am at least,” Theo grumbled, “Maybe Draco at least escaped that with his Gryffindor exploits,” he murmured. Draco blinked.

He… actually hadn’t thought of that despite his earlier mocking of Pansy. Not that he was thinking of dating anyone (because, yeah, they were twelve), but he didn’t think about what the future might hold from him in that department. He knew his parents had planned on finding some other mighty pureblood family for their bloodline, but now…

He wasn’t sure what he thought. He supposed that still might be the case. After all, he was the _only_ Malfoy child left. There had to be some hope he would get accepted back into the family… or were they already planning to have another child to replace him?

“So, who do you think the Heir of Slytherin is?” Ron burst out.

Ah. Yes. Right. Draco forgot the original stupid reason they were here. Sighing, he closed his eyes. A snort of laughter rippled through the others.

“Sorry, Goyle,” Pansy rolled her eyes, “I can’t point you in the direction of your next master.”

“While I most certainly appreciate the school getting a thorough cleansing,” Daphne said, reappearing so suddenly that Harry almost fell out of his chair, “I am kind of irritated by the whole thing. My parents aren’t paying these goons to freak out about a monster attacking cats and ghosts,” she sniffed, tossing her hair over her shoulder.

“Also, a student,” Theo pointed out coolly. Daphne shrugged.

“Well, yeah, but aren’t more, er, mudbloods are next?” Harry said, cringing slightly at the word… God they were awful at this. Draco probably needed to cut in before someone realized that Crabbe and Goyle were simultaneously both smarter and stupider at once.

“God, I hope so,” he sighed and leaned back slightly, rubbing his temple, “Have you seen them mucking about the place? Someone needs to take care of it before the school is overrun with roaches,” he sneered. Pansy gave a delighted laugh.

“Too true,” she said and reached forward to pop a candy in her mouth, “Personally, I think it’s someone older. Someone who has been waiting for the right moment. A seventh year would be smart to wait one last year before disappearing right after graduation.”

“If we can even graduate like this,” Daphne said. Draco nodded agreement. Finally. Someone who understood. Why was their school the breeding ground for these sorts of things?

“If whoever it is needs any help, then send them my way,” Draco clicked his tongue, “I would gladly help-”

“It could be Draco,” Theo interrupted. The room paused. “What?” He asked after everyone turned to stare at him, “Think about it. His parents won’t speak to him and you lot are being bloody menaces to him – what better way to reclaim his name? He’s smart enough to pull it off,” he reasoned.

“You think so?” Draco asked, a little taken aback.

“I mean, I don’t _approve,”_ Theo said with a small shrug. Pansy sighed, “But Draco seems like a real possibility to me,” he told them. “Also, maybe make yourselves less obvious suspects,” he told them dryly. 

“Just because you and Adrian think you’re so edgy with your muggle-loving selves-” Daphne sneered, but was cut off by Theo scowling at her with a wave of his hand.

“I’m not saying they’re great, but maybe they shouldn’t be _hunted by a giant monster,”_ he threw back firmly. Draco turned to look at him. He had always known Theo to be a bit outspoken, but never to this extent. Especially in front of people who would definitely turn him over to his family. 

“Adrian!” Pansy called and from somewhere in the other room, there was a low hum of acknowledgement. “Tell me, do you think mudbloods should be allowed to roam our halls unchecked or do you agree with the bloodtraitor here?” She asked. 

“I think it is going to be really funny when the muggleborns outnumber us, Parkinson,” the voice from the other room called, “And I am going to enjoy watching what Granger decides to do with you when they do.” 

“What’s that supposed to mean?!” Pansy shrieked, standing up so the books in her lap clattered. “Outnumber us? What are you trying to say? Draco was _lying!”_ She hissed and Daphne frowned, raising a hand. “He’s just jealous because he’s an outcast now. Nothing is _wrong with me,”_ she said, hitting them all with a fierce glare, hands balled by her sides.

“Darling, I don’t think that’s what he meant,” Daphne said gently and reached out to put a placating hand on her arm, “Just that there are so many muggleborns and more and more bloodtraitors breeding with them. It is hard to keep the lines pure,” she said, rubbing the side of her arm. “Nobody thinks you’re - nevermind,” she said. Theo scoffed. Immediately, the group turned to him.

“Here’s a radical thought,” Theo said and Draco tensed a bit at how dangerous his voice was bordering at, “Maybe after the mudbloods the monster can wipe out all the icebloods. You know, since we’re speaking practically here,” he said, looking Pansy straight in the eye. 

“ _Watch it!”_ Daphne said, holding Pansy back when she launched herself across the table. Theo gave a delighted laugh.

“Oh, you’re missing some poise there, Mistress Parkinson,” he mocked. Without thinking, Draco put a hand on his arm, keeping him from getting up. Pansy may not look it, but she was scrappy. If Theo got too close, he could lose a hand. Puzzled green eyes met his.

“Sorry,” Draco said and jerked his hand back, “Just… maybe wait until she’s calmed down,” he murmured. Pansy was screeching now - eyes glassy with tears as she finally spun around, shoving Daphne off of her to march towards the dormitories. 

“What’s wrong with you?” Daphne asked, spinning around to face Theo.

“I just thought you should hear how ridiculous you all sound,” Theo grumbled and stood up, “Oh, and before you want to tell me how I can follow Draco into disownment, remember I have an older brother. I _don’t care_. Let them disown me,” he sneered at her before storming off in the opposite direction.

Draco stared. He didn’t think he had ever been so fascinated with someone before. Theo was… kind of amazing. He thought about it all the way back towards the girls’ bathroom as Harry and Ron gave bitter remarks about their adventure. 

“Useless,” Ron grumbled as they marched inside, “Our lead is _Draco_ ,” he said and turned to glare at him. “Which we know it isn’t, because you’re always with us… otherwise I would think of you as a legitimate suspect,” he warned.

“It was nice to be considered,” Draco said solemnly. Harry turned to hit his shoulder. “ _What?”_ He complained, “It was!”

“That isn’t a compliment! Hermione is a muggleborn. It won’t be so flattering when people accuse you of killing her, will it?” He snapped. Oh. Right.

“Well… other muggleborns,” he said and Harry clenched his jaw. “Come _on_ , I – both of you are so sensitive,” he cut himself off when Ron also glowered at him. “If all muggleborns were like Hermione, I would feel differently, but they’re not. They’re dumb and arrogant-”

“You would know about arrogance, wouldn’t you?” Harry said and shook his head, “Even if that was true – which it _isn’t_ – you think they should die?” He asked. Draco opened his mouth. “Would you say your answer in front of Hermione?” Harry cut in before he could answer. “If not, then maybe something is wrong with what you’re about to say,” he said flatly and marched away. Ron paused before giving a fierce nod and walking after him.

Why was everyone so against him? Besides, he was actually taking in consideration some of Theo’s points. If their goal was to keep the bloodline pure, why _weren’t_ icebloods treated the same as mudbloods? Icebloods were outcasts and shames, sure, but they weren’t ever hunted… Bloodtraitors were sometimes killed, but not in the same way mudbloods were. 

Well, he could always speak to the one mudblood (sorry, muggleborn) he liked.

“…and then he said he thought _I_ was the Heir of Slytherin!” He said, running his hand through his hair as Hermione stared at him with rather unnatural looking eyes. They were in the hospital wing - Draco _knew_ there was something not quite right with her. Apparently, Millicient had cat hair on her robes, which led to Hermione’s rather… well, feline appearance. 

“Ron and Harry told me a very different version of this,” she finally said. Draco tilted his head at her, “Theirs involved much less Theodore Nott,” she added as an explanation. Oh. Right. Draco’s retelling might have gotten a little sidetracked.

“I just don’t know why he thinks so highly of me,” he admitted. Hermione cleared her throat. “You know what I mean! It might be morally wrong to kill people, but the idea that I can have such a skillset to open the Chamber of Secrets and control a monster is quite flattering.”

“You are very lucky my claws are gone,” Hermione told him and sat up, “Draco,” she said and sat up slightly, “I know I am in no way in the position to give advice given…” she gestured to her catlike features, “But I do want to point out that you might be romanticizing this whole thing because you miss your… other friends,” she said slowly. Draco frowned.

“They aren’t my friends. They left me.”

Hermione’s expression was something Draco had trouble reading (likely due to the fur), but he could tell it was pained.

“They would have been if you were sorted into Slytherin… Many of them were before Hogwarts,” she pointed out and sighed. “Maybe you shouldn’t be looking into this with us,” she mumbled.

“ _What?”_

“I don’t want to get political with you, Draco,” she snapped, “But you don’t seem to understand they’re bad people-”

“Wait a second,” Draco cut her off, “They’re all _bad_ people? Why? Because they’re Slytherins?”

“They’re killing muggleborns! Or at least one of them is!” Hermione argued and gestured to him up and down, “And don’t lecture _me_ with the ‘just because they’re Slytherins’,” she mimicked, “You don’t seem to care that someone is out to kill people _just because they’re muggleborns_ ,” she hissed – quite literally, mind you. Draco might have teased her under different circumstances. “I thought by now you would be able to see things differently.”

“I do care! You just can’t see things so clearly because you hate Slytherin so much,” he snapped at her. “Besides, I don’t know what more I can do to make you happy. I talk to muggleborns - I lived _with a muggleborn_ ,” Draco pointed out, thinking of Ted. Granted, he had little to no interaction with him throughout his stay with Andromeda (nor did she really press the issue), but he had still lived there. No complaints. Not one. Hermione groaned.

“None of that matters because you don’t care, Draco. All you do is try to say the right thing to avoid us telling you off. You think you’re better. You’ll _always_ think you’re better,” she said. Draco clenched his hands, standing up so quickly that his chair toppled behind him.

“Fine,” he snapped, “If I’m so awful, then maybe I should stay out of it. Have fun bothering innocent Slytherins,” he said and marched over to snag his bag from the hospital wing, “Maybe if I’m lucky, Slytherin’s monster will get you, and I won’t have someone to disappoint so often!” He yelled, ignoring Madam Pomphrey’s scandalized gasp as he kicked the door to the hospital wing shut behind him.

Him and Hermione didn’t speak much after that.

She was released from the hospital and since that point, neither of them had uttered a word to the other. Harry and Ron both seemed terrified to get involved - probably fearing both Draco and Hermione’s wit and temper equally. He liked to think that the fact neither had openly said anything to him on the matter meant they thought he had a point.

Either way, it meant most of the time nobody spoke during breakfast… which was unfortunate on days like today. Harry was in a pretty foul mood. As ridiculous as it was, the whole Heir of Slytherin thing was beginning to get to him. Perhaps, Pansy’s suspicion was finally making him crack. Either way, it was pathetic to watch as he miserably played with his porridge, while others whispered as they passed. 

“Stop moping,” Draco told him.

...Harry continued to mope. This wasn’t going to be easy, was it? Giving a bitter sigh, Draco looked around the Great Hall. Oh, _whatever_.

“Merlin, haven’t you _heard?”_ He said loudly, silencing the conversation at the table surrounding them. Harry blinked as he looked up at Draco, obviously confused. “I saw Hannah Abbott wearing green the other day! Don’t you know that only _dark_ wizards wear green?” He said and shook his head, “Maybe _she’s_ the Heir of Slytherin!”

There was a gasp from the Hufflepuff table. 

“I am not!”

“And just you wait until I tell you about Neville Longbottom,” Draco continued as the rest of the hall began to fall silent, “I saw him read a potions book _willingly_ one time. Don’t you know only _dark_ wizards read potions? Maybe… it’s him. Or perhaps Professor Snape,” he drawled out. Ron looked around before shrugging.

“ _I_ heard that Hermione Granger is the brightest witch of our age. Everyone knows that twelve-year-olds who know fifth year spells are dark witches, right? It must be her,” he said and Hermione shook her head fondly at him. 

“Well,” Neville said, jumping in with a small smile, “I saw that Professor Sprout took away five points from Slytherin the other day. Only a dark witch would take away points from mighty Slytherin, right? I think it’s her.” 

There was a slight pause, and Draco risked a look at Harry to find him smiling silently at the table. Mission accomplished then. He was keen to just leave it there, but with the Great Hall all so deadly silent, it just left so much room for others to join in.

“I heard that-”

“Fred Weasley-”

“Definitely the Heir of Slytherin,”

“...don’t really like how he eats tacos. Probably a dark wizard.” 

“Draco Malfoy-”

“-Luna Lovegood.”

“It _must_ be him, right?”

“Cedric Diggory-”

“Only dark wizards tie their shoelaces like that, right?”

“Ginny Weasley has a diary. Pretty sure that makes her the Heir, right?” 

“Well, quite frankly, I think it’s me,” Theo called, “I sleepwalk. Seems reasonable enough,” he said. Draco paused to beam at him from across the Hall. Theo only smirked before giving a small shrug in return. 

“Alright!” Professor McGonagall called, clapping her hands as she fixed them all with a stern glare, “This is no laughing matter. I would thank you not to entertain this any longer,” she said sharply and immediately the room quieted once more, though with considerably less tension and whispering. Harry glanced up.

“Thank you,” he said, voice barely above a whisper. Draco grabbed an apple and bit into it.

“Just stop your whining and pass me some pumpkin juice.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, Draco… the fun part about dramatic irony is that we all know how badly you fucked up with those last few sentences to Hermione RIP. That mental breakdown is coming. I promise the next chapter will be fraught with some major character development for our boy, worry not. 
> 
> Also, I should clarify that Narcissa and Lucius aren’t.... _complete_ trash here. They get a sorta redemption arc too and I KNOW they canonically love Draco so that's gonna stay. Not all is as it seems 😌 I wouldn't betray you guys like that. I won't say anything other then... it will all be explained chapter 12 (: ya gotta trust me here lol


	4. Year Two (In Which There’s this Giant Goddamn Snake and a Bloody Sword for Some Reason)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you all had a happy Halloween!

His father was here. 

Not for Draco, obviously, but… well, maybe it was something to do with the Chamber of Secrets? It was hard for him to play the concerned parent role when he wasn’t really a parent… or concerned. Draco knew his father pretty well and was positive the man was enjoying the situation more than concerned... and yet. Still. He was here. Trying to get Dumbledore out of the school and the Ministry of Magic involved.

He thought about relaying this to Ron and Harry, but both seemed preoccupied with finding the Heir of Slytherin, or at least what the monster was. Draco had pretty much halted any efforts he was making on that front given that him and Hermione still weren’t on speaking terms. Ron had tried to play mediator once or twice, but was instantly shut down by both of them.

So, yeah, Draco was focusing more on why his father and Fudge was here. 

He was a little pissed off about it, quite frankly.

“Are you alright?” Ron asked as he walked into their dormitory to find Draco sprawled out, chopping some extra Valerian root he had taken from Severus’ cabinets in effort to make a calming drought. 

“Yep,” Draco said. His hands were shaking as he dumped the root into his cauldron. Neville glanced up from his bed, grimacing at Ron. He had been silently helping Draco throughout the process - wordlessly handing him ingredients and bringing him food whenever Draco forgot to go down to get dinner. He was a good one, Neville. Draco decided he had been too harsh with him to begin with.

“Oh,” Ron said and sat down next to him, “Um, that’s good,” he mused and clicked his tongue, “Because Hermione seemed kind of worried yesterday,” he added and when Draco froze, sighed. “Come on, you can’t be upset with her forever. I need a turn to argue too,” he added lightly. 

“So you think I’m right to be annoyed?”

“I didn’t say that,” Ron told him quickly. Draco rolled his eyes and went back to his potion, “I… okay, listen. No, stop doing that,” He said and took the knife from Draco. “Look, Harry and Hermione were raised by muggles. They don’t know how… intense some purebloods can be,” he said and Draco narrowed his eyes. “I’m _trying_ to be nice about it, Draco.”

“Don’t be,” he grumbled and Ron didn’t need to be told twice as he crossed his arms over his chest.

“They brainwashed you,” he said simply and Draco reared back, “Normal families aren’t supposed to threaten to chuck you to the side over little things. They told you to be a certain person - and that there was only one _good_ kind of person - and said if you weren’t then you weren’t worth anything at all.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Draco seethed and yanked his knife back.

“But you’ve already deviated from their normal, Draco,” Ron said, completely ignoring him, “And eventually you have to realize whatever person you become… that’s on you, mate.”

“It’s not that simple! I - I don’t want to talk about this. You’re making stuff up.” Draco said and completely abandoned his potion to pace, “Where even is Hermione anyways? She thinks she can just spew her muggle nonsense and-”

“Wait,” Ron interrupted. “You haven’t heard from her?” He asked and Draco shrugged. “Ugh, she must still be in the library,” Ron sighed, running a hand over his face. “She’s going to miss the quidditch match… which you should be getting ready for.” He added. 

Oh. Right. Yeah. Draco blinked. He didn’t often forget about quidditch given that it was the one thing he really felt any sort of joy from lately. Ron got up and grabbed his uniform, throwing it at Draco’s face. 

“Why do we even need to play Hufflepuff?” Draco sighed, shoving the ingredients to the side so he could change. “Everyone knows we’re going to win.” He said and Neville hummed.

“They do have Diggory.” He pointed out. Draco shrugged. Fair enough. One good player meant nothing though. Even Diggory couldn’t save his failure of a house. Plus, he was a seeker. Maybe he could hold his own against Ravenclaw and Slytherin, but certainly not Harry. The idiot almost died to catch the snitch against Slytherin. Draco could appreciate Diggory’s talent, but was pretty sure the guy was smart enough to not be willing to die over a school quidditch match. Harry couldn’t say the same.

“Right, I’m getting Hermione. Maybe you should help her do some research later?” Ron suggested.

"Or maybe I could pitch myself off the Astronomy Tower." Draco answered as he tied the front of his quidditch robes in place.

“Hey.” Ron said and snapped his fingers in front of him. “Draco, remember she’s muggleborn. She’s _scared_.” He said. 

...ugh. He hated it when _Ron_ had good points. Draco knew, in theory, that Slytherin’s monster was supposed to kill all the mudbloods in the school, but it hadn’t _actually_ killed anyone yet, right? He tried to remember if his parents had mentioned anything to him about the chamber. Probably, but he couldn’t remember now.

“Yeah,” Draco finally sighed, “Okay. Fine. I’ll help her.” He relented. He wouldn’t talk to her as he did it, but whatever. He would help. Maybe he could ask Harry to update him on his weird fascination with whatever journal he mentioned finding in the bathroom was. 

Filled with something set between annoyance and exasperation, he joined the others in the locker rooms only to find the group whispering. Wood was arguing quietly with McGonagall, who was repeatedly shaking her head with her jaw set into a firm line. Frowning, he walked over to Harry.

“What’s happening?”

“No idea,” Fred Weasley said with a yawn, “Whatever it is though is giving poor Ollie an aneurysm. Me too, quite frankly. I know we haven’t been adhering to that mad training schedule for McGonagall to disqualify us.”

“Why would we be disqualified?” Harry asked, eyes narrowing a bit as George gave a delighted laugh. Before either could answer, McGonagall cleared her throat.

“This match has been canceled.” She announced and Oliver threw up his hands. “As are all foreseeable matches.” She added firmly over her shoulder. Oliver spun around, mouth opened slightly, but McGonagall’s gaze silenced him. “Mr. Potter. Mr. Malfoy. With me.” She added. Harry frowned and looked over at Draco who shrugged. 

“What did you do?” He asked and Harry spluttered.

“ _Me?”_ He asked, following Draco out.

“Oh, shut up. It’s always you.” He muttered and dodged a swipe from Harry. McGonagall surprisingly didn’t scold them. She looked too worried with her jaw clenched and shoulders somehow more tense than normal. “I - oh, good. Mr. Weasley,” She greeted when Percy came into the room with Ron behind him. “Good, good. Let’s go.” She said, flicking her hand for them to follow. 

Okay… this was a little weird. He shared puzzled looks with the other two as they left the quidditch pitch back towards the castle. He debated about pressing for more information, but based on McGonagall’s expression it would be no use. About three turns later, Draco realized with a cold prickling of his skin that they were heading towards the hospital wing. 

“Professor?” He finally asked, “Where’s Hermione?”

Both Harry and Ron’s heads snapped up simultaneously. McGonagall took a long breath before standing in front of the door with her hands clasped in front of her.

“This might be a bit of a shock-”

“Where is Hermione?” Draco repeated, feeling a wave of panic begin to swirl in his chest. No. No, no, no, no… this wasn’t… couldn’t… “Where is she?” He asked again and when McGonagall didn’t answer, shoved past her to get into the hospital wing. No. _No_ , she was fine. Maybe another polyjuice gone wrong or something. She was fine. It was fine. Everyone was fine. “Hermione!” He shouted and looked around some of the empty beds. “ _Hermione!”_

“Mr. Malfoy,” McGonagall said and placed a hand on his shoulder. “She’s over there,” She told him, squeezing tightly as she turned him towards the other end of the room. “I’m sorry. You must know we’re doing everything we can.”

Hermione. 

The world spun, everything growing disoriented as he tried to make sense of the figure in the hospital bed. Harry and Ron rushed forward, both giving their own reactions as Draco stood completely still. She was… not moving. Not in the way someone slept or even when they died, but… just… like a statue. He inched forward, fingers reaching out to brush over her skin. 

Cold. Cold and hard and somehow inhuman. 

“Draco?” Harry finally asked, turning to him. He didn’t respond. Draco wasn’t sure he even could. His tongue felt like lead in his mouth. Heavy and metallic tasting. He blinked a few times. “Draco… hey.” Harry said and tried to pull him closer to the bed. He yanked back.

“I… I, um, I need to go.” He said and spun away. In the back of his mind he could hear McGonagall trying to remind him he couldn’t leave unescorted, but he pushed her voice out of his mind to sprint out of the room. 

He needed to go to the library.

* * *

Draco wasn’t sure what time it was when Harry woke him up. The library was empty, candles dimmed as he lifted his head up from whatever book he had been reading from.

“Hi.”

“Hi,” he murmured back and Harry dropped in the seat across from him, “What are you doing here?” He asked and rubbed at his eyes. Harry smiled weakly. 

“What are you doing here?” He asked and Draco gave a slightly hysterical laugh. “It’s been three days. I’m really surprised Madam Pince has been so nice about you staying.” He said. Draco didn’t respond. In truth, he knew the reason Pince let him stay at all was because the last time she had left two kids in the library well… let’s just say he wasn’t the only one with guilt issues. The real shocker was that McGonagall hadn't chased him out...which, admittedly, was mainly due to the fact Draco had nicked Harry's invisibility cloak. “What are these?” Harry sighed as he picked up the said cloak and held it close to his chest.

“Everything Hermione had on hold. I thought it was good to pick up where she left off.” He said and nodded to the other pile, “Those are all… um, muggle books.” He muttered and shook his head, “I thought reading them might help me understand more about muggles, but I’m just more confused.” He admitted, running a hand through his hair. “Why… why do they eat people’s organs? I don’t…” He trailed off. Harry blinked a few times.

“What?” He asked and Draco shoved his book over towards him, pointing to the passage he was looking at. Harry read it a few times before sighing, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Orpheus Gigglemore,” He read along the spine, “He sounds pureblood.”

Draco nodded. 

“Does that matter?”

“I wouldn’t trust _purebloods_ to write a book on muggles.” Harry told him and snapped it shut, “Here. I can help you find some that aren't full of rubbish. Muggles don’t eat anyone’s organs. I mean, I guess they do eat liver and stuff, but it's the same as when wizards eat it.” He added and Draco nodded slowly. That… that was good. “What else did that book say?”

“A bunch of stuff. I mean, some of it my parents told me. Like the fact muggles used to try and steal our magic.” He said, shuddering. Harry tilted his head. “Or that there are some who can catch lightning and use it for their food.” He explained.

“We should see if we can get rid of those books…” Harry said slowly, “None of that is right.”

“Really?”

“Really,” He said and grimaced at the rows of books. “This is not how I thought I would be spending my Saturday.” He grumbled and then lightly nudged Draco, “But Hermione would be thrilled, wouldn’t she?” He asked. Draco gave a weak smile in return.

The rest of the weekend was spent with Harry (and eventually Ron) all piling in the library to split the research for Slytherin’s monster and factually reliable muggle books. There actually weren’t too many books there that weren’t written by purebloods. Draco had taken to writing Professor Burbage to see if she had anymore he could try. 

Needless to say, when Monday came around he was exhausted… so when the crying came from the girls’ bathroom he wasn’t thrilled. Now, Draco had gotten pretty familiar with Moaning Myrtle’s wails of post-death agony so he knew it wasn’t her, but… he also recognized the flash of red hair and worn robes that had disappeared around the corner moments before.

The last time Draco had followed a sobbing girl into the toilets he had been attacked by a troll. He wasn’t eager to repeat the experience, quite frankly. Yet, for some unknown reason, Draco still sighed and dragged himself to the stalls.

“Ginevra?” He sighed and knocked lightly, “Hi. Should I be getting one of your numerous brothers right now?” He asked. Really, it was only because Andromeda and Molly liked one another that he was bothering at all. The sniffling paused.

“This is the _girls’_ toilets!” 

Draco rolled his eyes.

“Really?” He asked dryly and leaned against the stall, “I’m sorry that I valued your mental breakdown over the gender designated signs.” He said and the door cracked up slightly. “Hi again. I have defense in about ten minutes so…?” He held out a hand. Ginny peered out. She was such a small thing - though he could tell already that she was going to grow up to be a force to be reckoned with. There was a fierceness in her eyes he felt he had seen before. 

“Don’t tell Ron.” She whispered. Draco frowned.

“Um, okay. Why?” He asked curiously. He wasn’t sure this was a good start to the conversation, but whatever. “Are you hurt?” He asked and Ginny bit her lip, wringing her hands together as she looked around. “Look, if this is about the monster then you have nothing to worry about. It goes after muggleborns.” He told her. Ginny flinched. 

“I know.” She whispered and took a long breath. “I... um, I…” She inhaled slowly. “I’m just overwhelmed.” She decided. Draco stared. Fair enough, really. Draco figured it would be stressful to have your first year get so terribly mucked up outside of the normal classes, exams, and general eleven-year-old drama. 

“You know,” he said and held out his hand, “I don’t really fancy going to class anymore. Lockhart doesn’t actually teach anyways.” He said and Ginny gave a small smile at that. “I’m going to read some more about muggles. Do you want to come with?” He asked. Arthur liked muggles well enough. Maybe Ginny did too. 

“Will… will reading about them help everyone in hospital wing?” She asked. Draco considered.

“No,” he said, figuring being honest was his best bet, “But I don’t think it can hurt.”

So he went back to the library. Ginny stayed with him for the rest of the day, fidgeting nervously until she finally broke down and went back to the common room a few hours later. McGonagall found him the next morning (courtesy of Madam Pince) and tried to get him to leave the library, but at that point Draco had switched gears and started researching the monster again. He ended up stealing Harry's cloak again and returning right after McGonagall left. Why was anyone bothering with him anyways? He was pureblood. Leave him alone to brood.

It was a good two days later when he finally did go back to the common room with the intention of staying.

Draco broke into the dormitory in a daze. He felt panicked. A hard knot was beating uncomfortably in his chest as he began to scour the room, ignoring Harry’s yelp of alarm. 

“What are you doing?” He asked as Draco paced, wringing his hands together.

“They’re out!”

“What?”

“The library,” He snapped, running a hand through his hair, “They’re out of muggle books. Why are there so few of them anyways?” He asked, distressed, “I can’t find anymore. They’re gone and I don’t know where to get more. I wrote Andromeda to see if she can send over some of Ted’s. Or maybe she has some? Do you think she does?” He asked. Harry frowned, swinging his legs off the bed to creep over to him.

“You seem… upset,” He decided. Draco didn’t answer. “Why do you need more muggle books?” He asked, “I found you at least seven in the library.” He said and sat up. “You went through _all_ of them, already?” He shook his head, “Why do you need more?” He repeated.

“Because I ran out, _obviously,_ ” He hissed and gripped at his hair, “I went to Professor Burbage and she didn’t even have more. How does she not have more? She teaches _muggle studies.”_ He said, throwing up his arms. Harry watched, brows creased as Draco continued to ramble.

“Draco,” he finally sighed and moved towards the end of his bed. “You can’t-”

“I still don’t understand anything!” Draco cut him off, “Why do muggles have trains _and_ cars _and_ buses? That’s too many modes of transportation!” He shouted, “And they’re all so similar!”

“Draco.”

“And why don’t muggles think ghosts are real? Can they not turn into ghosts when they die? My father said it was because muggles don’t have souls, but that has to be wrong, right? It’s wrong. Tell me it’s wrong.” He said and Harry swallowed before getting up to grab his arms.

“Breathe.” He ordered and it was then that Draco realized he was shaking. He tried to shrug Harry off, but his fingers only seemed to dig into his arms more. “I know you’re spiraling,” Harry continued quietly, “But no matter how many books you read… it isn’t going to bring her back.” He said. Draco flinched. He knew the words were true enough… but hearing them out loud made it hard to think. He didn’t know what to do.

“I can’t find anything about the monster.” He sighed and Harry grimaced.

“Ron and I have a theory on that front,” He said. Draco raised an eyebrow. No offense to Ron and Harry, but… that seemed precarious. “Are you up for a trip to the Forbidden Forest?” He asked. 

Of bloody course. 

And that was how he found himself standing in the nest of quite possibly the largest spiders he had ever seen. Ron was clinging to him, whimpering helplessly with his absolutely _useless_ wand as Harry seemed to balk in offense that they were going to be eaten despite being Hagrid’s friends. 

“So to be clear,” Draco said, holding up a finger at the spiders circling around them, “We tell you that Hagrid has been arrested under suspicion of opening the Chamber of Secrets. You tell us this is wrong and give us some hints as to what it is because you’re too cowardly to say it’s name and… what? You kill us now so we can’t prove your friend innocent?” He asked and paused. Wait. Spiders won’t speak of it.

_Spiders won’t speak of it._

Harry was hearing voices. The Heir of _Slytherin_. The dead roosters… God, how stupid _was_ he?

“Guys. Guys!” Ron cried, holding out his wand with a trembling hand. Aragog didn’t respond to Draco’s grumbled attack, instead disappearing into the forest like the nuisance he was. Harry yanked out his own wand with a slight frown of worry. “We should run.”

“...yeah. Okay.” Draco said and glanced around for a good place to pull them. The spiders were drifting closer now - fangs snapping at them. He grimaced… right, this was what he got for going along with anything Ron or Harry suggested. 

“Know any spells for this?” Harry asked, taking his lantern to whack one of the spiders away as they began to stumble away. “I learned the one from the duel - it won’t work on all of them.” He said and pushed Ron down when a spider jumped. Ron screamed. 

“Body binding hex?” Draco suggested and glanced at Ron, “Maybe you shouldn’t try anything with that wand,” He added and flicked his wand. _“Petrificus_ _Totalus!”_ He yelled. One of the spiders froze, which was good, but it did nothing for the dozens of others getting closer.

“...we might die.” Harry said, sounding a little surprised by this fact. Draco was about to spin around to punch him when a honk sounded. He turned just in time to see a bright light flood the forest as a blue metal… thing entered the premise. 

“The car!” Ron gasped and stumbled to it. Draco tilted his head. _That_ was a car? He had heard of cars, of course. It was a weird sort of muggle machine that he knew wizards were fascinated with. His parents never consorted with such objects though so he had never seen one in person. It looked like an oddly shaped box with wheels and - “Draco, _come on!”_ Ron shouted and Harry pushed him forward. 

“Get in!” Harry growled and Draco was left to clamber in the backseat, baffled by the doors. “Drive, drive, drive, drive-”

“I’m trying!” Ron said, tears rolling down his cheeks. Draco wasn’t really sure how cars worked, but something told him it wasn’t a good idea to have him behind the front circle, which sat on his side of the car. He was immediately proven wrong when Ron managed to press some stuff and launched them forward.

Huh. Cars. Fascinating. 

They sped forward as Ron kept muttering reassurances to himself and Harry tried to piece Aragog’s words into some sort of theory while tapping his wand absently against his thigh.

”It’s a basilisk.” Draco said as the car flew over a tree trunk. “Like in Balthazar and the Basilisk!” He said and the car jerked to the right. 

“The _what?”_ Harry yelped. Ron was too busy screaming to really respond.

“It’s an old wizard's tale my mom used to tell me. A snake and a spider who would always fight and the basilisk always won. Besides, a basilisk is a type of snake, which explains why _you_ can hear it. Aragog said the girl was killed in the bathroom so maybe it gets around through the plumbing.” He explained. Ron screeched and the car revved slightly as they flew over a creek. 

“You’re right-” Harry breathed out and turned to him, “And we know a ghost who lives in a bathroom.” He added.

“Myrtle.” Ron said. Oh. So, he had been listening. Good for him. 

“Myrtle.” Harry agreed solemnly. 

* * *

He knew it. He bloody _knew_ it. The moment Hermione woke up he was going to tell her too. Lockhart was a coward and a prat and an idea-stealing fake. There weren’t many ideas that Draco applauded Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum for, but blackmailing Lockhart into this damn chamber should be commended. 

“So you’re a fraud?” Draco clarified after they got up from the long slide into the chamber’s initial entrance. A lavatory. How fascinating. Were they even lavatories when this castle was initially built? He knew a primitive form of plumbing existed in the tenth century, but certainly it was different than what they had now? How had Slytherin even managed this? Whatever. It would be something he would have to discuss Hermione when she woke up… he missed her.

“I knew you were useless. Didn’t I say he was useless?” He continued, pushing the thought away to look at Ron who nodded. “Okay, so in that case we can use him as bait-”

“Now wait a moment!” Lockhart interrupted with a nervous laugh, “Let us think through this all very carefully.”

“Bold of you to be advising us to think.” Ron muttered. Draco gave an approving nod. 

“Also, we don’t like you.” Draco added.

“You’re a bloody menace, quite frankly.”

“The only thing that is truly yours is your looks and even then you aren’t really that handsome.”

“Yeah, you look like a cheap, plastic version of someone who is better looking.”

“Ooh, I like it,” Draco said and Ron gave a small bow, “Why don’t you use these insults against Montague?” He asked. Harry pointedly cleared his throat before giving them both an annoyed gesture around the chamber. Ah. Right. “We’ll come back to this after we save your sister.” He added. Ron’s previous amusement melted away at the mention of Ginny. 

In retrospect, perhaps Ginny’s earlier fidgeting _hadn’t_ been due to exams or a stressful school year. Maybe she knew she would be taken? How though? She was pureblood. It made no sense. He mulled over it as they continued down the tunnel, passing by various pipes and a pile of small animal bones.

“You know,” Draco said as he nodded at the end of the cavern where glowing snakes sat, “We’re kind of stupid for not thinking snake earlier. Maybe we deserve to die.”

“Could you be less helpful?”

“If I were Lockhart here, yes.” Draco informed him stoically. It was at this moment that Lockhart decided to collapse. Draco sighed. “He… bloody look at him.” He said and Ron moved closer to prod him with his foot. “Maybe I should ask Andromeda to teach us defense next year.” He sighed. Groaning, Ron moved to help him up only to be shoved to the side as Lockhart got up, yanking his wand from his hand. 

...brilliant. Draco watched as Ron and Harry faltered - eyes widening in alarm. Draco wasn’t sure why. Even as Lockhart went into more detail about his various crimes where he apparently oblivated people to take credit for their work, Draco remained unfazed.

“Can you do me first? The sooner I can forget all of this the better.” He said and Harry pulled his robes back.

“Draco!” He hissed, but was shoved off when Draco rolled his eyes. “Don’t-” He started, but was silenced when Ron’s wand predictably backfired and threw him into the wall. “Oh.” He said and Ron shook his head. “I - _move!”_ He shouted and pulled Draco again, sending them toppling to the side as the cavern rumbled, rocks tumbling down with a loud, thundering boom that sent the whole tunnel shaking.

“Ah,” Draco said and sat up. Maybe he should have seen that coming. “That’s not good.” He murmured. 

“RON!” Harry screamed and pulled away at some of the rocks. “Are you okay?!”

“Yeah!” Ron shouted back. “Yeah, I’m okay. Lockhart too.” He added as if they cared at all about Lockhart’s wellbeing. “Listen, this is going to take awhile to clear. I can go back and get the teachers. You need to go find Ginny.” He said and Harry paused.

“Ron-”

“ _Go_. Find her.” Ron instructed. Harry turned to look at Draco for a moment. 

“Maybe you should stay and help clear this away…” He said slowly and Draco raised an eyebrow. “...or not.” He muttered. “Just trying to keep you from getting killed.” 

“And I’m trying to keep you from getting killed,” Draco said calmly, “No offense, but you literally asked me if the Whomping Willow had _feelings_ last week. I don’t trust you to retrieve Ginny safely.” He said. Harry opened his mouth - nose wrinkling in indignation before seemingly deciding it wasn’t worth it and turning away.

“I bet you don’t even know what a phone is.” He muttered. Draco blinked.

“A… what?” He said and Harry gave a pleased hum as he led them closer to the glowing snakes. “Are you saying fawn? That’s a deer. Learn to pronounce words.” 

“Nope. Phone.” Harry said and paused in front of the snakes, running his hand over the intertwined bodies. He hissed something in parseltongue. After a few seconds of silence they creaked back, letting the door swing open. “How’s that for pronouncing words?” Harry asked.

“I truly don’t think I would be your friend if Hermione hadn’t forced us to.” Draco told him flatly and followed him inside. 

The Chamber of Secrets was eerily beautiful in a sort of dreary way. Columns lined either side with serpents slithering up them. Water dripped down the walls and a statue of Salazar Slytherin himself stood tall at the end of it with a small figure sprawled out in front.

“Ginny.” Harry breathed out at the same time Draco made out the red hair. Harry sprinted forward, practically sliding on his knees next to her. Draco hesitated, eyes flicking around the chamber before also rushing over to her.

“Oh,” he said as he looked down at Ginny, “Is she dead?”

“ _Empathy,_ Draco.”

“I’m a man of equality now, Harry.” Draco informed him solemnly, “I didn’t care when muggleborn Creevey was petrified so I can’t care when a pureblood Weasley is dying.” He explained. 

Harry looked at him. Draco shrugged in return. What? He was trying.

“I’m going to punch you if you don’t get over here and help me save her.”

“....fine, but I’ll be telling Professor Burbage how you caused me to regress.” He grumbled and knelt next to Ginny. He frowned. This really wasn’t fair. She looked so small. Draco hadn’t been close with her by any means, but she seemed smart and nice enough. Who would want to hurt her? It wasn't her fault her family was full of bloodtraitors. If they were to take any Weasley it should be Fred or George since there were two of them. Maybe Percy. Draco thought he was the most respectable of them, but he could be obnoxious.

Right. He needed to focus.

“Okay," Draco said, "We need to figure out how to warm her up - I have a few charms that might do the trick, but I don’t think her body temperature is the main issue.” He murmured and brought out his wand. Harry nodded, but paused - eyes flicking to the other side of the chamber with a frown.

“Tom?”

Draco looked up. They weren’t alone. Draco followed Harry’s gaze to where an older boy was leaning against one of the pillars, eyes watching them with an air of almost amusement. He was tall, pale with dark hair and equally dark eyes.

“Hello, Harry.” the man - Tom apparently - greeted. Draco frowned. Harry was asking for help, desperately explaining their situation, but Draco was more concerned about how this stranger got into the chamber in the first place… and why he didn’t seem at all concerned about Ginny. 

Tom. _Tom_. It was such a simple name. Common. Muggle even. Draco had heard it a million times before. Why did it bother him so much? He looked back towards the boy, appearing in the mist almost as if he were part of the mist himself. Draco swallowed, noting with a sense of horror that the black diary in Ginny’s arms also seemed oddly familiar. Too familiar. In fact, he was pretty sure he had seen it in his father’s study numerous times. He picked it up, feeling his skin prickle at the name glittering in the low light of the chamber.

_Tom Riddle_

“Harry,” Draco finally said, interrupting the panicked attempts to get help, “He’s not here to get Ginny out.” He said and Tom’s eyes latched onto him, curling into a cold smile. 

“Ah, Draco.” He greeted and took a step towards them, “Oh, Ginny and I had some fun with you.” He mused and jutted his hands in his pockets, “Your poor friends… doing all that research and work… trying so desperately to help, but unable to get the answers they needed. Answers that you had.” He clicked his tongue and knelt down so he was eye level with where Draco was kneeling on the ground, “If only you weren’t so busy crying in the corner maybe you could have warned them.” He said and gave a wink. 

“It’s you,” Draco said and his breath seemed to leave him, “But…” He began and then paused. The diary. His father had never told him much about it, but he knew it who it once belonged to and that giving it to someone could lead to… his eyes fell to Ginny. “You used her.” He said numbly. But _how?_ How did she even get the diary? It was in the manor. Locked away with -

“What are you talking about?” Harry asked, voice rising slightly with both frustration and fear. 

Diagon Alley. His father. Ginny was _there_. Draco had gone after him… Draco had followed him and the others came… His father must have given it to her somehow. He did this. Why…? 

A strong sense to throw up overwhelmed him. Ginny was sitting here _dying_. Hermione was petrified in the hospital wing. All because of his father. All because… Draco hadn’t bothered to care all year long.

Harry and Tom were still talking - probably putting in the missing pieces of how Ginny had this diary for an entire year and Draco just… hadn’t noticed. Caught up in his own woes and arguments and… okay. Now wasn’t the time. They needed to get out. Think. Think, think, think…

Then the snake came.

Of bloody course the snake came. After Riddle did some hissing of his own there was a horrible rumbling noise followed by the basilisk bursting out with an ungodly howling noise. 

Draco dragged Ginny to the side, hoping that Harry had a better plan than he did. Two against one, right? They could take down a massive snake that killed people by looking them in the eyes like freaking Medusa.

“TRY TO TALK TO IT!” Draco shouted as Harry stumbled back, “USE PARSELTONGUE!” He yelled, trying not to sound as panicked as he felt. It was hard though considering the snake in question was a good fifty feet long with rows of dripping teeth and horrifying yellow eyes. 

“It only obeys me.” Tom added snidely from where he was watching with a smirk. Draco cursed - yanking out his wand. Useless. He could see from here that the snake’s skin was armored. Anything Draco cast at it would be reflected. Maybe… Maybe if he aimed for the eyes… He pointed it at the basilisk only to feel a sudden chill rush over him, leaving him cold and the air escaping his lungs. “I wouldn’t try to get involved.” Tom’s voice echoed through the chamber, “This is between Harry and me.”

For a moment, Draco thought he was going to pass out. His wand clattered to the ground, rolling somewhere in the cavern as he fell to his knees, trying to gasp for air. Somewhere in the distance he heard a screech and there was a yell of outrage that let Draco suddenly breathe again. He gasped as he fell forward.

“No!” Tom hissed, trekking back and forth as a bird - okay, what the Hell? What was a bird doing here? Whatever, he was grateful - a bird flew through the air, clawing viciously at the basilisk's eyes. “It can still hear you!” He yelled as Harry continued to run.

“Help Ginny!” He shouted, still fighting to keep from slipping on the ground as he weaved into one of the adjoining caverns. The bird continued to fly high above, dropping something on the ground beside Draco as he continued to greedily gulp down air. Tom walked over to peer down at it.

“A hat?” He asked, nudging it with his foot, “Good to know Dumbledore is still up to his old games.” He mused as the snake bolted after Harry. Draco glared. “Almost there… almost dead…” he mused looking over at Ginny.

“Nobody cares, you twat.” Draco rasped and grabbed the hat. Bloody Dumbledore. A _hat?_ Really? A _hat?_ He reached inside, desperately feeling around for something helpful. Tom chuckled.

“You know,” he mused as Draco let out a scream of frustration. He went to grab for his wand again - at least hoping to defend him and Ginny from the mystical tyrant - only to feel around at the wet floor to no prevail. “You… are an interesting case, aren’t you? Pureblood. Powerful according to Ginny, but that’s no surprise. Most well-bred wizards are.” He mused and Draco’s fingers twitched. “Most importantly, you’re young. Maybe with Potter out of the way I could make something of you.” He said.

Instinct told him to use that. Survive. This was an opportunity to survive. He looked up - Tom was clearly winning. Even now, he looked more alive than ever. More than mist. More than a memory. He felt real. Maybe Draco should jump ship… What was the point of dying for a lost cause? 

His hands brushed against Ginny’s arm. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Hermione’s name was whispered.

“Never.” He growled at the same time Harry sprinted back in. The snake was gone, which was both a relief and nerve wracking. There was no way he had killed it, right?

“What are you still doing here?” He practically shrieked, rushing to them. “Take her and leave before it comes back-”

“You want me to leave you?!” Draco asked and picked up the hat to throw at him, “No!” He snapped and a clattering sound followed. Both him and Harry looked down. 

“...is that-?”

“ _Really?”_ Draco shouted, yanking at his hair. Harry shushed him. “A sword? A _sword?_ That thing is the size of a building and the hat gave us a sword?!” He said. 

“Maybe… it’s a magical sword?”

“Say something else to me immediately because I don’t want the last words I ever hear to be that stupid.” Draco said. Harry made a face in return before walking over to try and pick Ginny up. 

“Grab her other side and we can-”

Whatever else he was about to say was cut off by a loud rumble as the basilisk made its grand (and rather unwelcome) return. 

Good news though. They had a _sword_. Good for them!

Draco raised it, a little at a loss on what their next move could possibly be with Riddle strolling back and forth. He could sense a wave of impatience rolling over him as the snake came closer.

Not knowing what else to really do (and figuring he would die either way), he raced up towards the basilisk and used all his strength to jam the sword into its side.

There was a brief moment of silence in which it was really too hard to tell who was more shocked by this action: Draco or the snake. After both seemed to register what had happened, the basilisk threw its head back and let out an ungodly screech. It appeared as though his efforts had not killed the thing...which was probably fair. Draco should have maybe considered where it’s main organs would be instead of just stabbing at random. That was on him. 

“ _DRACO_!”

And it looked like he was going to die for his mistake. The basilisk lunged forward, teeth bared and dripping with venom. He braced himself for the pain, but before any could come he was knocked to the side. The sword clattered to the ground as Harry appeared on top of him. 

What _was_ it with the kid and launching himself at people? First Quirrell and now Draco? There wasn’t really time to ask. Harry was fumbling up, looking around desperately as the snake moved to strike again. Draco rolled over - fingers brushing the sword to slide it to him. 

“His head!” He shouted and Harry yanked the sword up just in time to swiftly move up as the basilisk moved again. For a moment, Harry almost disappeared. Draco had no idea if he made it out or not until he saw the tip of the sword sticking out of the top of the basilisk. “...holy mother of Merlin.” He whispered and pushed himself up.

The snake fell to its side, a loud wail following as the cavern shook and Harry was revealed underneath on the ground. Draco sighed. Thank God.

“Okay,” Draco murmured as he slid over to him, “That’s done. Great. Can we-” he started and froze. A fang was sticking out of Harry’s arm. He stared. Venom. That was filled with Venom. His heart stopped.

“Ow.” Harry whispered and gave a slight cry of pain as he went to move. Draco put a hand on his shoulder.

“You’re fine,” he said. Whether he was lying to himself or Harry felt unclear, “You’re fine. We just need to get you to the hospital wing.” He said, glancing at Ginny. How was he supposed to get them both out? If he needed to choose, who needed help first? Maybe he could send Ron back for one? 

“...dizzy.” Harry murmured and grabbed absently at Draco’s arm. “Riddle.” He reminded him and Draco spun around.

There he was. That handsome-for-nothing son of a bitch. Riddle seemed torn between dismayed and pleased as he looked between his dead pet and Harry. Draco took a slow breath. 

“Well,” he said calmly and tilted his head, “That was eventful. To no avail though. You’ll be dead soon enough. The girl too… and I’ll be restored to my full power.” He said and nudged the sword on the ground. “Maybe I’ll kill you with this when I’m done.” 

For the record: Draco didn’t have a temper. Not really. Not exactly. Sort of. Listen. When you’re surrounded by two dying people and some twat who is technically not even real yet comes along saying they were going to kill you with a sword like this was 1536 then sometimes you let anger override other senses. 

“Oh, yeah?” Draco asked and grabbed the sword. “Maybe I’ll kill you with it first.” He hissed and launched forward. This time, he made sure to think about where he was aiming and...well, ideally he had wanted to get the heart, but considering Riddle was the size of a 17-year-old and Draco was twelve… well, it moved more towards his stomach and just kind of went upwards. Interestingly enough, Riddle seemed pretty pained by this action. Draco hadn’t been sure since he was technically a memor- wait. He turned, seeing the diary beside Ginny glow as he yanked the sword down, stumbling back. 

The diary. Draco knelt down, yanking it towards him as he used the sword to stab the diary. Riddle screamed. He stabbed again. And again. And again. More light burst forth and cries of pain followed and eventually he was left with a destroyed book and utter silence.

“Harry?” He asked, dropping the sword again as he crawled forward. “Stay awake. We need to get you - what the Hell?” He asked when he turned to find the other boy sitting with the bloody phoenix on his arm. Wait. The bird was a _phoenix_? “Did he cry on you?” He asked and Harry nodded. “Oh. Well. That solves that then.” He mused and turned behind them, “Get him over to Ginny and - you too?” He asked when he saw her sit up. “What the Hell? Were you both just waiting for me or something?” He asked.

“I…” Ginny looked around, eyes wide. “Riddle. Harry, Draco, I didn’t-”

“We know,” Harry interrupted, “He’s gone and...that.” He added with a nod towards the snake. Ginny went white at the sight of it and moved back. Draco nodded in agreement to that assessment. 

“....should we get back then?” Draco finally asked and walked over to check Ginny over. “You both should really go to the hospital wing still. Let me check your pulse.” He added absently to her. It was fast, but given the circumstances that was understandable. 

“I am so sorry,” Ginny whispered and Draco shook his head. Between his father’s involvement and Draco’s lack of action… yeah. He couldn’t blame her.

“No, I’m sorry,” He said and offered a hand to help her up, “You’re going to be fine. Let’s go.” He told her and grabbed Harry’s arm to also look over. Not a damn mark remained. Phoenix tears. Wild. 

The trip back was silent. The rockfall has been cleared away, which was good, but also confusing that nobody had gone after them. This was explained when they climbed out to find Ron loudly trying to explain to a group of adults what was happening as others began to gear up for what Draco assumed to help them. 

Harry cleared his throat. 

There was a long pause as the group of teachers and the three of them stared at one another. Draco wondered what they looked like. Covered in blood, robes ripped, and Harry hold the sorting hat while Draco was holding a God forsaken sword. McGonagall put a hand on her chest.

“ _Wha-?”_ Flitwick began and Draco shook his head, tossing the blood-covered sword in front of them.

“Please tell me someone has some pumpkin juice because I’ve just had the worst freaking day.” He said flatly. Nobody spoke. “Hey, Myrtle.” He added offhandedly to the ghost, “We killed the snake that killed you.” He added. Professor Sprout made a high-pitched noise in the back of her throat.

“...my office,” McGonagall managed. “Now.” 

Yeah… Yeah, that was fair. Nobody had even asked about Lockhart (who was so obviously delighted and confused about pretty much everything that was happening) as they made their way after McGonagall. Unsurprisingly, Arthur and Molly Weasley were there. Ginny made a small noise of relief when the door opened.

“ _Mom!”_ She cried and zipped past Draco and Harry to launch herself at Molly. Draco watched with a small stab of envy as they all cooed over one another with small sobs of relief and hugging and… yeah. Just the normal, super gross family stuff. He wondered if his mother knew he almost died today. Were they still contacted about stuff like that?

“Oh, and _you!”_ Molly said and grabbed at both Harry and Draco. Arthur was hugging Ron, looking him over carefully as Ron tried to wiggle away and explain he had mainly just dealt with Lockhart... as if that wasn’t the bravest task of all. “Thank you. _Thank you, thank you-”_

“It was mainly Harry.” Draco said, “I was going to leave her.” 

“That’s not true,” Harry sighed as he wiggled away from Molly’s grasp. “You could have ran and left us both. You didn’t.” He pointed out. Draco blinked. He actually… hadn’t really thought of that. He could have run. In fairness though, he had no idea whether the rockfall in the passageway had been cleared yet so he shouldn’t be given too much credit. “Also, you’re the one who got me the sword.” He said, nodding to the blood covered sword McGonagall had brought with them. 

“Is that so?” A voice asked and Draco internally sighed. Dumbledore. He turned to see the headmaster waiting patiently by the doorway. Wasn’t he supposed to be suspended or something? “Only a true Gryffindor could have pulled that sword from the hat,” he said. Simultaneously the group turned to Draco. Damnit. He gave a wary sigh.

“Oh, wow,” he said sarcastically, “How exciting. I can’t wait to tell my parents I have somehow lowered myself even more. Perhaps I can finally reach Hell soon.” He added under his breath. Mrs. Weasley leaned forward to whisper in his ear.

“You’re supposed to say thank you, dear.”

“Thank you, professor.” Draco added on with a fake smile.

“I apologize for him,” Ron added, “In his defense, he was raised by monsters.” He said and Molly looked at him. “What? I mean, he’s with Andromeda now so that’s good.” He mused and Draco felt a little betrayed when both Molly and Arthur murmured in agreement to that. 

Draco was totally jinxing his socks when they were done here.

The next few hours were spent with Harry doing most of the talking. Ron and Draco occasionally chipped in when Harry paused, but for the most part he seemed to cover the important stuff. Draco would have thrown in a lot more thinly veiled complaints about the whole thing, but maybe that was why nobody had asked him to explain. 

“Well,” Dumbledore said when Harry had finally finished, “It appears with the basilisk gone and the mandrake juice almost ready there is cause for celebration. Perhaps we should continue with the feast after all.” He smiled and turned to Ginny, “But for now, you must rest. Why don’t you head down to the infirmary with your parents for some chocolate?” He suggested. Ginny nodded - some of the vacancy had left her gaze with the previous life returning to her. Draco smiled at her. 

“As for you three,” Dumbledore continued as the Weasleys took their daughter outside, “I believe we must discuss your actions.”

Oh, Draco knew where _this_ was going. 

“...are you going to award us points?” He asked dryly. Dumbledore smiled. “Told you we would be back here again. Shouldn’t have let us get away with it last time.” He shook his head.

“Two hundred each. For you daring deeds and saving this school once more.”

“I would be so upset if this kept happening while I was behaving myself in Slytherin.” Draco sighed. Looks like they won the House Cup again. How wonderful. He would have made another snarky comment, but was silenced by a familiar bird flying to Dumbledore.

“Fawkes.” Harry greeted with a small smile, “He came to us in the chamber and dropped the sorting hat… and blinded the basilisk.” He added. Dumbledore smiled. 

“Ah, yes.” He mused, “For that I must thank you. Fawkes is said to come only when one shows extreme loyalty to me.” He smiled. Draco turned to look at Harry. That extreme loyalty hadn’t come from Draco that was for bloody sure. No offense to Dumbledore, but Draco would sell him out for a couple of galleons. 

Harry flushed and said some other things, but was cut off by a knock sounding at the door. Draco froze. He knew that knock. Knew the weight. The beat. The pattern. He knew it better than he knew anything else in this world. It was the same knock he had grown reliant on over the years - a subtle sign that someone was coming to keep him safe. 

The door swung open and Lucius Malfoy walked inside. Draco straightened up instantly, all too aware he must look disgusting given recent events. Behind him, Dobby also stumbled in with low whimpers and flinches. 

“What is this?” His father asked and Draco tilted his head, “I heard you were reinstated. This is an outrage. You are not fit for this school. First, you brainwash my only child by allowing him to consort with lowborns and refuse to let him leave that awful house and now you let a monster wreak havoc-”

Harry’s hand reached out, fingers gently squeezing tightly around Draco’s forearm. His father went on, but Draco was too busy trying to push away the initial hurt to listen. He wasn’t sure his father was aware that Draco was even in the room as he continued about his rampage.

“Actually,” Draco finally interjected when he felt as though he could no longer take his father’s voice slicing through the silence, “It turns out Hagrid didn’t open the chamber.” He said and gently leaned over to take Riddle’s journal from Harry’s grasp. “This did.” He said and threw it down at his feet.

Lucius’ eyes widened a bit as he spun around to find Draco in the corner. There was a beat of awkward silence as the pair looked at one another and then at the journal between them. It was clear what they both knew. You did this. You gave this journal to a little girl. You almost killed people. You hurt Hermione. 

A wave of rage jolted through him so suddenly that the world seemed to spin with it. His hands clenched by his sides. 

“It’s funny,” he said, voice impossibly cold, “To think that someone would be so spineless as to pawn such an object to an eleven-year-old.” He said and tilted his head, “I normally don’t tout my Gryffindor qualities, but I must say I am pleased to know my dignity will never reach such levels due to cowardice alone.” 

His father’s eyes flashed.

“Andromeda works quickly, I see.” He replied. It was all he said and somehow Draco felt the sting as if he had taken that cane and hit him in the face in it. Even worse was when he turned away without another word. Dobby’s eyes fixed onto him curiously.

Wait… Dobby knew. Draco had almost forgotten about his elf’s meddling… but Dobby must have seen his father slip it into Ginny’s things and wanted to warn them. Perhaps the reason Dobby hadn’t been responding to him all year wasn’t because Draco was no longer his master, but because his father had forbidden him to speak to Draco in fear he would reveal what was going on. 

“Father?” Draco asked suddenly, silencing the office. The group turned to him, “Dobby didn’t come to me when I called him earlier this year. Would that mean I am officially emancipated?” He asked. Lucius raised an eyebrow - possibly noting the subtle change of term. His eyes flicked to Dumbledore.

“Nothing is decided yet,” he said slowly - just as Draco knew he would. After all, Draco was pretty much done for anyways… but there was no way his father would announce it in front of a room full of people. “Dobby should have still been responding to you.” He added. The house elf flinched with muttered apologies.

“A - apologies, Master Draco.” He began, but Draco shook his head and yanked off his tie.

“I’m sorry it’s covered in blood,” he said and knelt down, “Perhaps I will find you some newer clothes later, but for now you can have this.” He said and handed the tie over. Dobby stood frozen for a moment until Draco gently took one of his hands to place the tie in it. “I, um, hope you like the colors.” He added, lifting his eyes to meet his father’s hardened expression. “Red and gold are for my school house.”

“Master Draco…” Dobby began.

“Just Draco.” He corrected, letting his eyes fall down to him again. “And I, um, should also apologize. I haven’t… always been kind.” He said slowly. “It is possible if we meet again I may forget myself. Please be sure to remind me when I do.” He added. The words felt foreign and a little stupid as he said them. Dobby’s expression was kind of worth it though. Somewhere between aghast and starstruck. Wordlessly, he nodded. 

Draco stood back up.

“Mr. Malfoy,” he said and paused. A whisper of hope still wanted to be called back. Maybe the part of him vying for his parents would never go away. “Professor Dumbledore.” He added and brushed past. A lump hardened in his throat.

Please… please… please….

“Draco-” his father started and his heart stuttered to a stop. He turned around quickly to meet his eyes. Lucius opened his mouth again for a moment Draco could have sworn he saw a hint of defeat there. For what, he wasn’t sure. After all, at the end of the day… this was _his_ doing. Not Draco's. “We’ll send the remainder of your things to Andromeda,” He said finally, “I’ve written to her to expect them.”

...ow. He nodded, trying to keep his face blanked as he turned back around to leave the room. 

“That was brilliant.”

Draco turned. They were outside Dumbledore’s office now. He had been so lost in thought that he hadn’t even noticed Harry had followed him.

“What? My father hating me?” He sighed, rubbing the side of his arm. Harry looked at him. “Oh. The Dobby thing. Right.” He mumbled. “I guess… I, uh, read up on the history of house elves after I ran out of those muggle books. Actually, they were the books Hermione had on hold at the library and I… it doesn’t matter. Turns out, it is actually pretty ridiculous that they have to obey our laws when, historically speaking, they had their own governments way before humans even existed and are way more powerful than - oh. We’re doing this again.” He interrupted himself when Harry grabbed his arm and pulled him into a hug. 

“You’re amazing.” He said as he let go. Draco turned red. 

“Shut up. You’re the one who killed a giant snake, scarhead," he said and gave him a curious look as he glanced back at Dumbledore's office. Harry had asked the sorting hat something back there... it was quiet enough so that Draco couldn't hear, but... he had a suspicion of what it could be. After all, there was no way a parselmouth wasn't at least considered to be put into Slytherin.

Part of Draco wanted to ask it why he had been put into Gryffindor, but he wasn't sure he wanted the answer. Perhaps both conversations would be reserved for a different time.

“You pulled out the sword!” Harry said, skipping up next to him.

“I’ve had enough of you,” Draco grumbled and turned away. Harry’s laughter followed him. “Let’s talk about these bars on your window Ron mentioned. You know, you can stay with me and Andromeda… and Ted.” He added, “Or, perhaps, I can visit your relatives and scare them. They might know about the ‘no magic outside of school’ thing, but I think I can still scare them.”

“Draco, you are a small, very pale child.”

“ _I’m taller than you!”_ He said, steaming at Harry’s growing laughter. “Oh, that’s the last time I suggest helping _you,_ you little-”

_"Draco Malfoy.”_

…oh dear. Draco had predicted that Andromeda might be a terror to deal with upon learning Draco fought a giant snake (and Voldemort technically too). In fact, she had been writing to him quite regularly with concerned requests to maybe come home for the year. He had no doubt that he was going to get an earful when he returned.

What he _hadn’t_ considered was Severus.

“...hi.” He said, offering a wry smile. Severus (unsurprisingly) did not return the gesture. Harry paused - looking warily between the two as Severus marched up to them, face torn between an expression of pure anger and pure relief. That was kind of touching.

“Potter, get the hospital wing.” He snapped, eyes not leaving Draco. Harry opened his mouth. “ _Now_.” He hissed. Draco waited for Harry to argue - to say he got cured by bloody bird tears of all things - but perhaps he recognized that Severus was on the verge of losing his mind because he only squeezed Draco’s arm before abandoning him completely.

Maybe the coward should have gone to Slytherin. Traitor.

“Listen,” Draco began “I told Dumbledore not to give me any points. It isn’t my fault this keeps happeni- _ow.”_ He yelped when Severus grabbed his robes and practically tossed him into an empty classroom. “Severus!” He complained when the door slammed shut behind them.

“You went down to the Chamber of Secrets - when a student was _missing_ \- and decided to fight a giant snake?” He said, voice raising with each word. Draco nodded. That about summed it up. “Explain!” 

“...um. Well, Harry used parseltongue to open up the chamber. Lockhart was there-”

“No!” Severus snapped his fingers, “No. I know what happened. The whole bloody school knows _what_ happened.” He hissed, “I want an explanation as to why you’ve suddenly lost any shred of intelligence you had and followed the lead of _Potter_ and _Weasley_.” 

“I mean, you kind of nailed it. I was the only one with a shred of intelligence. Couldn’t just leave them be-”

“This isn’t funny,” Severus told him, “You may be in Gryffindor, but I at least expect you to have some dignity and act like you have more than a few brain cells. If you keep this up then I can expect you to be riding a flying car to school next year, won’t I?” He asked. Draco frowned. “When you return to school you have detention.”

“ _What?”_ Draco spluttered. Andromeda was probably going to yell at him too. What was this? “For how long-”

“A month.” 

“A mont-? Are you insane? Why aren’t you yelling at Harry and Ron?!” Draco asked, voice rising a bit. “That’s so unfair!”

“Two months.” Severus informed him and held up a finger, “Speak again and it can be six.” He warned. “Let me tell you something about Potter. His father was the same. He led his friends and family into danger every. Single. Year. It was what got him and his wife killed. You would do well not to fall into the same trap Lily Evans did.” He hissed and with that, turned to leave the room. 

Draco stood rooted to the spot. Who the _Hell_ was Lily Evans? He got the feeling asking Severus might not be the best idea considering the man’s current temperament, but also… this was totally unfair. Ron and Harry were similarly unhelpful as he relayed the foulness Severus had doled out when he returned to the common room. 

“Lily Evans?” Harry repeated slowly and pursed his lips. “I… think that might be my mom.” He said slowly. Ron and Draco stopped in their impromptu game of tug-a-war when Ron tried to take one of Draco’s socks to look at him. “I mean, my aunt’s name used to be Petunia Evans and people call my parents James and Lily.” He explained and wrinkled his nose, “What trap? Dumbledore said my dad saved his life.” He said, chest puffing out a bit.

“I don’t know. He probably knew your parents better than you do now.” Draco shrugged. Harry grumbled at that, saying some words that Draco was rather impressed he knew at their age. “Anyways, it’s nonsense that I have detention while you don’t. You have to come with me.”

“Nah, I’m okay.”

“No. Sorry, mate.” 

Draco sighed. He hated them both so much. Hermione would maybe go with him… you know, assuming the mandrake juice worked and she wasn’t stuck as a hunk of rock forever. Draco imagined she would be quite amenable to just doing homework in the corner while Severus continued his unwarranted torture.

“Come on,” Ron said gently, perhaps reading his mind. “Let’s go to the feast. I’ll tell you about some of the stuff my dad taught me about muggles. It’ll make Hermione happy.” He suggested. Harry paused. “Like, he said their paintings don’t move.” He explained. Draco paused in slicking back his hair to give him a baffled look. “Yeah, I don’t get it either.”

“...they petrify their paintings?” He asked. Ron tilted his head as if just confronted with this line of logic. Thus began the very long conversation of why muggle photos don’t move as Harry simply smiled at the ground as he led them towards the Great Hall. 

“-magic makes the painting move, right? So, without magic then it can’t move.” Draco was saying as Ron resolutely shook his head.

“That seems cruel to just purposely _trap_ them like that. I mean… well, I haven’t really thought about it. Do paintings really feel things?” He mused and paused to look around. “We should ask the Fat Lady. Besides, how do muggles even paint or take photos without magic to begin with?” He asked and turned to Harry, “Do you know any of this?” He asked as they took their seats. Harry gave them both a very stoic look. 

“I’m afraid I do not.” He said and Draco narrowed his eyes before leaning in closer to Ron.

“He most certainly does.”

“What a tosser he is to keep it from us.”

“Definitely. Just because he knows about muggles he can just laugh at us? I bet he doesn’t even know about Dancing Doxies.” 

“Ha! Harry, do you know about Dancing Doxies?” Ron asked. Harry’s amusement quickly melted away into baffled offense as he gave a slight pout before shaking his head. “Draco, he doesn’t even know about Dancing Doxies.” 

“Boo, Harry.” Draco said, completely deadpan. Ron snorted and before Harry could throw back a retort of his own, Dumbledore walked to the podium.

Next came the typical formalities. Yay… Gryffindor won the House Cup again (unfairly, but all the same). Some talk of the basilisk being slayed, of Lockhart being unable to teach next year, you know… various explanations for why Hogwarts’ education system was rigged and not up to standard. Draco wondered offhandedly if these events would later affect if he could get a job. He could already imagine the conversation.

_“So, Mr. Malfoy. It says here you can’t cast a good tongue-tying curse… I thought you would have learned that in your second year?”_

_“Ah, well, no, I did not… but I did help kill a giant snake so I think I more than qualify.”_

It really was a shame he no longer had a fortune to rely on because he was most certainly not getting a well-paying job with this sort of educational background. He wondered how much money Dumbledore had… maybe Draco could sue him.

Just as he was debating the technicalities of possibly taking his headmaster to court there was a squeaking of the doors behind them opening. A low murmur followed as Dumbledore smiled towards the other end of the hall. 

“Look!” Someone gasped and Draco spun around to see a group of students by the doors. His heart stopped. “They’re back!”

“Hermione!” Ron said brightly as Draco launched from his seat. He raced over, pushing people aside to get to the other end of the hall.

“Hi, Draco!” Colin Creevey called, “Look! I’m not petrified anymore-” He said as Draco also shoved him to the side and threw himself at where Hermione was waiting. There was a tense moment before she squeezed back tightly.

“I’m sorry,” he breathed out, “I’m so, so sorry. I’ve already signed up for muggle studies next year and read all the muggle books in the library so please forgive me. I didn’t mean any of it-”

“I forgive you.” Hermione cut him off and buried her face in his shoulder. “And I'm sorry too.” She told him and let go. Draco just nodded, mind a bit blank of anything other than relief. “Thanks for visiting me.” She added gently. 

“I’m sorry.” He said again and turned to push Ron away, “Maybe you should jinx me so we should be even-”

“We want to see her too!” Ron said fiercely as he yanked at Draco’s robes, “Harry, make him move.” He said and Draco turned around to shove him away again. This time, Ron tripped and fell to the floor. Harry looked down at where Ron was on the ground and then back at Draco.

“You’re a nightmare.” He said simply. 

“Come on, let’s sit down.” Draco told Hermione, ignoring Harry altogether. There was a soft sigh, but Hermione interlinked their arms, allowing herself to be dragged back to the Gryffindor table with small whispers to the other two. 

Draco kept clutching at her as they sat down, listening solemnly to Dumbledore’s speech and re-announcing the rather rigged House Cup that Gryffindor had won. In an effort to also see Hermione, Ron had been placed firmly on her other side with Harry sitting across while reaching over to keep a hand on her arm.

“As a happy end to the semester, I am pleased to announce all exams are canceled.” Dumbledore said as a roar of approval went through the crowd. 

“I don’t understand the point of this school.” Draco said flatly. He turned to Hermione who also looked dismayed by the information. “Do you understand why we’re here? Because I don’t think they plan on us getting an education. We just fight snakes and get petrified, I guess.” He grumbled. Oh. Wait. “Lockhart is a fraud and a total twat. He tried to oblivate us.” He informed her, “You really need to set your standards higher.”

Hermione blinked.

“Ah, yes.” Ron said and rubbed his hands together in preparation for the food. “Draco is being a jerk again. We can finally say things are back to normal.”

“...when was I not a jerk?”

“When you freed Dobby.” Harry cut in and turned to Hermione. “He freed Dobby in front of his father-”

“ _Harry!”_

“You did?!” Ron gasped, “Right in front of the blonde git king himself? Brilliant!”

“No, it wasn’t!”

“Oh, Draco, you _did?”_ Hermione gasped, eyes wide. Draco groaned. Much to his dismay, a few others overheard this conversation and immediately began to bother them for details. 

He was so glad this bloody year was done. 

* * *

Nymphadora was waiting for him this time.

“Where’s Andromeda?” He asked, pulling his trunk onto the platform. Startled eyes met his own.

“Hey,” Tonks greeted slowly and tilted her head, “That was really quick. How did you recognize me?” She asked. Draco snorted. She did look different. Her hair was blonde now - eyes a silver that almost matched his own. It was a curious look. Andromeda had told him once that sometimes Nymphadora’s appearance changed without her permission (though it didn’t happen as often since her auror training). He wondered if she had meant for them to look similar or if it was an accident.

“My mom has one of those,” he said instead, gesturing to the bracelet on Tonks’ wrist. “I like what you’ve done with it.” He added. Tonks glanced down before giving him a small smile. It was the Black family crest… with a few modifications. Instead of crows there were badgers (probably an ode to her unfortunate Hufflepuff origins) and where the original house motto had been ( _Toujours Pur…_ aka always pure) was now _Toujours Bonté,_ which Draco was pretty sure translated to ‘always kind’. 

How dorky of her. 

“Thanks,” she said and glanced over at where Molly had swept Hermione up into a hug. “My mom is at the Ministry. I think she… has a suspicion on who was responsible for the attacks.” She started slowly. Draco pursed his lips.

“Yes, so do I.” He mumbled and kicked the ground a bit, “Dora?” He asked, wringing his hands together. She blinked. Possibly because he tended to refer to her exclusively as Nymphadora (he didn’t care if she hated it. That was her _proper_ name). “Um, do you think… your father…” He began and then stopped again. 

“What about my father?” She prompted. Draco made a face. Why were words so _hard?_

“Well, Hermione always tells me about muggleborn things, but I figured that… I mean, part of why purebloods don’t really like muggleborns is because they have to explain magic to them all the time because they don’t know things and I thought maybe it might be the same the other way around.” He said and took a deep breath, “And I made Hermione angry at me a lot this year so I don’t want to keep asking her about things _too_ often, so I thought that maybe I could ask Mr. To - I mean, Ted.” He corrected himself.

There was a long pause. Oh God. She was mad at him-

“I don’t think he would mind you asking him,” Nymphadora finally said. Draco’s shoulders relaxed. “However, I warn you now… he will quiz you.” She said, lightly ruffling his hair. Draco scowled at the betrayal, trying to right the mess she had made before responding. 

“I love quizzes,” he said solemnly and then sensed a new presence. Aha. His friend. “Hello Vernon!” He shouted when he caught sight of Harry’s uncle. “Did you hear the good news? They lifted the rule that we can’t use magic outside of school! Isn’t that great? Harry can show you everything we learned this year!” He grinned. 

Harry _beamed_ at him. 

“Which one should I show him?” He asked and Ron popped up with the demon twins. Honestly. It was ridiculous how they somehow just _knew_ when someone was causing trouble. 

“Show him the one that gives you an extra eye.” George advised solemnly, “A personal favorite of mine.” 

“No, no, no.” Fred shook his head, “Show him the one that makes you puke daisies-”

“What’s this?” Dora asked him. Draco turned, offering a small smile.

“Harry’s uncle. He hates magic and is mean to him. They kept him a cupboard for eleven years.” Draco told her with a nod. Nymphadora gave a low hum before her hair turned bright pink with interest. “How do you think he’d react if I showed him my pig nose?” She asked. 

Draco took a deep breath. 

“ _Please_ do… Also tell him you're an auror. If he doesn’t know what that is we’ll say it’s like… a detective.” He said and when Nymphadora tilted her head, shrugged. “I read muggle books this year. There was this one called Sherlock Holmes and _he_ was a detective. He was very smart.” He added thoughtfully, “I told Harry he should write to him to solve the Chamber of Secrets nonsense, but he just laughed at me.” He added with a grumble. Nymphadora snorted.

“Come on,” she told him, slinging an arm over his shoulder, “Let’s bully this muggle before he can take Harry and leave.”

Draco was starting to like his mother’s side of the family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m glad you guys are so cool with Theo bc he’s gonna be around for awhile lol. Also, to give you a general idea of how ridiculously long this is gonna be... 371 google doc pages as of right now (working on year 6 currently). Another fun fact: so far you've read 100 google doc pages so thank you for reading this far! 
> 
> That being said... Year 3 is my favorite so I hope you guys enjoy it!


	5. Year Three (In Which Draco’s Life is Rudely Impeded by a Mass Murderer and Tea Leaves)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise! Early update to celebrate US elections FINALLY being done and over with! I know the results aren't even in yet, but I'm just glad to say I voted and can stop getting calls/emails/ads from all these politicians smh. I'm sure it was tiring even for non-Americans to keep hearing about lol.
> 
> Also, if you are an American and staying up to wait for the results here is something to read while you wait/distract yourself from the anxiety that's all over the news 😊😊😊

Draco was in _so_ much trouble.

Nevermind that Harry had literally _blown up_ his aunt earlier or that Draco very much suspected that Hermione had a bloody _time turner_ on her hands – no. This was obviously so much more important.

“Sirius Black could have been out, Draco!” Hermione yelled for quite possibly the eighteenth time that minute. “What were you _thinking_?”

“That’s what I want to know.” Ron interjected “Theodore Nott? Really? I knew you were friends but-”

“Wait, so he _kissed_ you?” Harry demanded and Draco felt his entire face flush.

“Not really.” He muttered, looking at the ground. McGonagall was definitely going to tell Andromeda and he was definitely going to get a howler about this. How bloody _mortifying._

“How does someone not really kiss you?” Ron asked, mystified. “Was it on the cheek or something?” He asked and Draco nodded at the floor, shuffling awkwardly.

“And he couldn’t have kissed you _anywhere else_ ? Maybe someplace _safe?_ ” Hermione asked shrilly, waving her arms around.

“Stop saying that!” He groaned “It wasn’t _that_ big of a deal! It is hard to spend time together when we are in different houses so we thought we could meet near Hagrid’s hut and yes, I _know_ with the whole Sirius Black thing it wasn’t a good idea, but…” He gestured helplessly. “I mean, of all people I shouldn’t be worried about Sirius Black.” He said and Hermione sniffed.

“Why not?” She asked. Draco closed his eyes. He had been kind of avoiding this, but...

“Yeahhhh,” he said and wrinkled his nose, “Sirius Black is kind of my cousin.”

There was a long pause.

“I’m sorry, what?” Harry asked. Hermione didn’t seem surprised...then again she had researched his family in order to blackmail him into their friendship so she probably already knew.

“My mom was Narcissa Black. Also, Andromeda was Andromeda Black. Then, obviously, Bellatrix was Bellatrix Black-”

“You’re _related_ to the guy who murdered thirteen people with one curse?” Ron asked, looking somewhere between horrified and interested. “God, your family is so messed up.” 

“Hey,” he said sharply and glowered, “Watch it-”

“Is Nott your boyfriend?” Harry asked, redirecting the conversation impatiently. He didn’t seem phased by the fact he was related to a mass murderer. How nice of him. Draco made a noise of despair and draped himself over Hermione’s lap.

“ _No_. Shut up. Your glasses look stupid today.”

“I thought you said they always look stupid?”

“More stupid than usual.”

“If he’s not your boyfriend, why did he kiss you?” Ron asked and Draco said nothing, content to just bury his face in Hermione’s uniform so he could die in peace. The girl only sighed and ran her fingers through his hair.

“Honestly, Draco.” She grumbled “That was so irresponsible.”

“How long do you have detention?” Ron yawned, and Draco could hear him cramming some parchment in a bag.

“Two weeks.” He mumbled and turned his head so he could see them. “I’m not sure _why_ because Severus already has me in detention for a month for things that happened _last year.”_ He seethed. Both his afternoons _and_ weekends were filled with detention now. Seriously? _Seriously?_ No way this was fair. 

“Will Nott be there?”

“He has detention too, Ron. Yes.”

“Are you going to let him kiss you again?” Harry jumped in and Draco threw his arm over his eyes and screamed in frustration. “What?” Harry complained

“Of course he’s not! Draco can do way better.” Ron interjected “Besides, mum says thirteen is way too young to date anyways. He should wait until next year and ask Dean Thomas out or something.”

“I don’t _like_ Dean Thomas!”

“Oi. I’m over here, you know!”

“Oh, hey Dean.”

“Hi, Harry.”

Draco made another noise of distress.

“I meant I didn’t like you in the adult kind of way.” Draco informed him, and Dean made a face from where he was sitting in front of the fire.

“Ew. Like the kissing way?” He asked, wrinkling his nose. “I thought you were only supposed to like girls that way?”

“Why?” Ron asked blankly “And Theodore Nott kissed Draco.”

“NO, HE DIDN’T!” Draco yelled, sitting up. “You shut up, Weasel!”

“From _Slytherin_?” Dean demanded “Draco, can’t someone from Hufflepuff kiss you or something?”

“Hufflepuff!” Ron nodded “Good choice.”

“I’m going to bed.” Draco told them. His entire face was hot. All he wanted to do was disappear under his blankets and not move for three days. He began to storm up the stairs fiercely just as he heard Hermione sigh and Harry say:

“So Nott _isn’t_ his boyfriend?”

* * *

Draco had always had considerably low expectations for Defense Against the Dark Arts. Between Quirrell and Lockhart, he was pretty sure competent teachers would not be in high demand. However, now that they were face to face with someone who actually knew what they were doing… he was a little worried that maybe a competent teacher wasn’t exactly what he preferred. 

“Hi, yes. Hello.” Draco said, raising his hand, “Um, why?” He asked. Lupin paused to look at him. “I would rather not go up in front of an entire room and share my worst fear with the class. In fact, that is a terrible idea in general when you have the boy who survived the Dark Lord and fought a giant snake last year.” He said and held out his hand towards where the Boggart was. Neville’s demonstration had been most spectacular, surely (though he was a little concerned that Severus really terrorized the boy that much), but the principle of the matter was downright appalling. 

“ _Draco!”_ Hermione hissed and he turned to her.

“It’s stupid and you know it!” He said and turned to Ron, “Tell me you don’t think that’s super dumb. Nevermind. You’re dumb. Harry?” He tried as Ron punched his arm. 

“This is Draco by the way.” Harry informed their professor brightly. “He’s a joy to be around.” He added and the rest of the Gryffindors gave a low laugh. Draco turned to glare at them all.

“I should have let that basilisk eat you.” He added to Harry who pouted in return. Lupin cleared his throat. 

“I do see the concern, Mr. Malfoy,” he said and gave a slight gesture to the wardrobe, “However, as a Gryffindor perhaps there is bravery in allowing others to know your fears?” He suggested. Draco remained unimpressed as he shook his head.

Ah, professors. They always liked to use the house traits against them, didn’t they? Too bad Draco didn’t quite fit in that normal Gryffindor mold.

“There’s also a stupidity in it.” He said firmly and grabbed Harry’s arm, “We will not be participating.” He said and looked cautiously at Hermione. “...you too, actually. And you.” He added, grabbing Ron. Lupin raised his eyebrows. “Listen, I don’t want to psychoanalyze my classmates in front of everyone, but Hermione got petrified last year and Ron has lasting trauma from a giant spider trying to eat us in a forest. They don’t deserve to potentially relive those experiences. Thank you.” He said. 

“Draco,” Hermione said gently and put a hand on his shoulder. “I _want_ to participate.” 

“...but why?” He muttered. Lupin cleared his throat.

“You and Mr. Potter may sit out. If Miss. Granger and Mr. Weasley would also like to then that’s fine… For today at least.” He added. Harry frowned.

“I can-”

“It’s alright,” Lupin said and shooed him away. Ron and Hermione both looked between them and the rest of their classmates. Hermione walked over to get in line. Ron paused, but quickly followed when Hermione cleared her throat. Harry scowled.

“I want to join.” He muttered.

“Bad idea.”

“Didn’t ask you.”

“Yeah, and not asking me is a bad idea too.” 

“Still not asking.”

“Still don’t care. Lupin even agreed.”

“No, he _didn’t_.”

“Then why did he give them a choice and not you?”

“To make you feel better because you’re a little-”

“Perhaps some quiet in the back?” Lupin called and both fell silent. Harry waited until his back was turned and then flicked him… because he had the mentality of a two-year-old apparently. Draco stepped on his foot. Harry stuck his tongue out. Draco reached up and knocked his glasses to the tip of his nose. 

This was pretty much how the rest of the class went as the others went through their boggarts. Ron’s was predictably a giant spider while Hermione’s included McGonagall telling her she had failed all of her classes. Draco shook his head.

“She literally was frozen last year. How is that how her greatest fear?”

“Failure is, obviously.” Harry said and Draco considered. That checked out… though he still felt like a giant snake trying to kill her should rank around the same if not higher. Though maybe he shouldn’t talk. His own fear wasn’t the basilisk despite having seen it in the flesh… or even Voldemort on the back of Quirrell’s head (an image that would forever haunt him, certainly). Not that he knew exactly what his greatest fear was, but… well, he had an inkling of what it could be. “I wonder what mine is…” He mused. Draco glanced over.

“Voldemort.” 

“I don’t know,” Harry frowned, “I mean, he’s scary, but… seems like something should scare me more by this point.” He mused. Draco shrugged. Either way, it wasn’t something he was keen on seeing. Harry had undoubtedly been through some stuff. Draco didn’t dare say it aloud, but part of him wondered how likely it would be that Vernon Dursley walked out of that thing. He would hate to think what the class might do with _that_ information. Especially the Slytherins. “Do you think we’ll get to try later?”

“You can, probably.”

“You can’t just not do a lesson.”

“Hm, we’ll see.” Draco said, shaking his head. “This is pretty invasive. You know, I bet if my father was still talking to me he might consider suing the school over it.” He said. Harry scoffed. “Seriously. I think it’s ethically questionable at the very least.”

“I promise not to make fun of you when Hermione walks out of that thing.” Harry said lightly. Draco bit back a smile. 

“You got it backwards. If I ever were to face a boggart I would simply say Hermione’s name and it would go away because she is the _boggart’s_ greatest fear.”

“Oh, I see.” 

“I can hear you!” Hermione called. Draco and Harry pointed at one another. “What are you even-? Sit down and pay attention!” She told them. Draco waved his hand at her.

“Riddikulus.” He said stoically as Harry snickered loudly, raising a hand to hide his face as the rest of the class began to join in all turning to Hermione and chanting the spell at her. 

Lupin made them leave. 

* * *

“Please don’t tell my parents.”

Severus didn’t bother to look up from the potion he was brewing as Draco sat down at the front of the classroom, wringing his hands. He didn’t answer so Draco pulled out his own cauldron, mindlessly prepping ingredients as he waited. Technically, this was detention, but Severus’ previous ire seemed to have settled down enough so that he didn’t make the whole thing totally unbearable. It ended up being more of an extra free period of them to make potions together, which wasn’t too taxing at all… usually. 

“So this isn’t some ploy to get their attention?” Severus finally asked as he poured in some white powder. The liquid turned a bright blue, bubbling slightly. Draco scowled.

“No.” He said shortly “Besides, I kept it in good taste.” He shrugged, “Theo is in Slytherin – it isn’t like a Gryffindor or anything.” He offered weakly and his godfather glanced over at him with a small sigh.

“You have a point there.” He murmured and flicked his wand to stir the potion. The room was beginning to smell overwhelmingly of apples, wafts of it coming from the cauldron. Draco went back to his own potion, throwing in three slugs as he felt Serverus’ eyes on him. “I won’t tell them.”

“Thank you.” Draco smiled a bit, raising his gaze.

“You should be more careful. Only idiots get caught.” Severus sniffed “I suppose you _are_ in Gryffindor-”

“So is Hermione and _she_ isn’t an idiot.” Draco argued back hotly “And neither am I.”

“Gryffindor gets one smart student and you lord it over like it is the only card you have.” Severus snorted and Draco pursed his lips, cutting his ingredients into perfect cubes.

“Don’t act like Slytherin doesn’t get idiots. I’ve seen Crabbe and Goyle.” Draco told him “And it isn’t one smart student. I’m here too.” He added and turned down the heat on his cauldron. “Brewing a seventh year potion.”

“Badly.”

“Says you.”

“ _I’m_ the potions master.” Severus snapped at him, though through the exasperation Draco could see a bit of fondness touching his eyes. “You’re forgetting to crush them. It releases the juice better.” He said and Draco looked down. Damnit. “Love has made you sloppy.”

“It isn’t _love_.” Draco grimaced, turning over his knife to crush some of the root he was working with. “It’s… I don’t really know. Stuff. Normal stuff, I think.” He shrugged and bit his lip. It _was_ normal, right? He wouldn’t know. His family just sort of picked people for their kids to marry. Dating was never really a thing.

“I see.” Severus commented and wiped his hands as his potion started to cool. He casted a preserving spell on it and turned to Draco fully for the first time. “And, pray tell, _why_ don’t you want me to inform your parents?”

What a stupid question.

“It isn’t like they are in contact with you. You’ve already been disowned.” He said and Draco winced a bit at that. He hadn’t told anyone the deed had officially been carried out last summer. He wasn’t sure anyone would understand. “They don’t _ask_ for updates from me. You’ve already done everything you weren’t supposed to do – joined Gryffindor, befriended muggleborns, bloodtraitors, and Harry Potter himself. Not to mention you live with an estranged relative who your mother hates and even grown accepting of her muggleborn husband. Why is this the one thing you wish to keep from them?” He asked.

Fine. It wasn’t a stupid question. He looked at his potion and closed his eyes.

“Why do you need a reason?” He threw back, though his voice was weak. Severus rose an eyebrow at that, lip curling a bit as he seemed to mull over Draco’s answer with disapproval.

“You’re reaching for something that no longer exists.” He told him and went back to his potion. Draco swallowed. He was right, of course. It just hurt to admit. “What you should be asking is for me not to tell your aunt.” 

Draco paused. 

“...McGonagall said she would tell you instead of Andromeda.” He said slowly. Severus just continued chopping up some ingredients, “You know what we _should_ talk about? You being Neville’s boggart.” He said, hoping to drift far, far, far away from the topic of Theo. Severus’ lip curled.

“Ah. Yes. Lupin is up to his old tricks, I see.” 

“I’m not his biggest fan either, but he can’t help the fact you are literally the scariest thing to a thirteen-year-old. The boy lives with Augusta Longbottom. You’re scarier than a woman with a vulture on her hat.” Draco said and stirred his potion, “As much as I appreciate your wit, perhaps redirect it at someone more deserving.” 

Severus’ eyes flashed.

“Watch it.” He warned and slammed his knife down with a little more force than necessary. “And what of you? I didn’t hear the crowd crowing about a Malfoy’s greatest fear.” He said. Draco flinched. “...you didn’t do it, did you?” 

“I have enough weaknesses on display. Nobody needs to know another one.” He muttered. Severus looked at him for a moment. “Also, don’t try to change the subject. Pick on Potter more. Just leave Neville alone.” He said. 

“Keep bothering me about this and I’ll ensure you regret it.” Severus told him coldly. Draco narrowed his eyes. Oh, he wanted to be difficult, did he? Draco could play that game. 

“Very well.” He sniffed and then added on lightly, “Perhaps it is all well after all. I’m sure you’re far less scary now that everyone has seen you sporting a rather dashing handbag.” 

Yeah… Draco knew from the look on Severus' face he was going to regret that one. 

* * *

Hagrid was surprisingly an adept teacher. Draco had originally been pretty exasperated to learn he would be in charge of Care of Magical Creatures for the year (especially given the biting book from Hell). Hermione told him off endlessly when Draco had asked what teaching credentials he even had (it was a valid question and he stood by that). However, Draco had been pleasantly surprised to learn that while he didn't like Lupin’s teaching methods… He did really enjoy Hagrid’s. 

Granted, the whole hippogriff business was a bit ambitious, but Draco didn’t mind the ambition. He did think it was a little foolish for the man to not realize that there were certain students who… were not going to listen very well. 

Honestly, Pansy was the bloody worst. He had tried to reach out to her over the summer to apologize for the iceblood comment, but she seemed more determined than ever to hate him. This led to a lot of hazing from (most) other Slytherins. 

“Did you hear, Malfoy?” Blaise called with Pansy curled meekly against his arm. She was the one who had gotten kicked in the shoulder by the hippogriff after she flicked it in the eyes. How she got into Slytherin was unclear. “Pansy’s mom got your father to take her case to the ministry! Does he know how fond you are of the beast?” He asked and then held up a hand, “Sorry. I mean the hippogriff. Not Granger.”

Ron tensed. 

“Watch your goddamn mouth, Zabini.” He warned when Hermione jutted out her chin. Draco felt a shred of pride that she didn’t cower away like she once might have. Marcus Flint gave a shrill laugh. 

“I would say to wash your mouth, Weasley, but I’m not sure you can afford any.” 

Ooh. That was a good one. Draco missed the days he could get away with saying something of that sort without even a hint of guilt. 

“Between you and him… I’m not sure he’s the one that needs it.” Harry offered wryly. Alright. Fine. Draco was going to practice walking away like Andromeda had told him repeatedly to do over the summer holidays… but if his friends were getting involved then he could, right? 

“Careful, Potter.” Pansy said and leaned forward, “Don’t want to summon the scary dementors here, do we?” She whispered and wiggled her fingers tauntingly. 

“Okay,” Draco said and turned back to the group, “Let’s run through the list, shall we?” He asked and stepped forward. He heard Ron curse under his breath, but ignored him in favor of pasting on a fake smile. “Pansy.” He said with feigned fondness. “I am so sorry that you got outwitted by an oversized chicken. I will admit, I was hoping that maybe a hippogriff kicking you in the head would make the mashed monstrosity you call a face look less like a horrific accident, but I guess we’re both disappointed on that front.” He said. Pansy’s scowl deepened as he turned to Blaise. “You, on the other hand, look stunning. I do solely wish there was some demeaning comment I can make about you, Blaise. You’re handsome, you’re smart, you’re pureblood – or… wait. Are you?” He asked, tilting his head, “I forget, which one of your mother’s shags is your father?”

“Watch it, Malfoy-”

“I’m just certain she ran out of purebloods at some point so she must have turned to some muggles to satisfy her.” He clicked his tongue. Blaise jerked forward, but paused when Malfoy raised his wand, “Not done yet. Let’s talk about you, Marcus. Congrats on the quidditch win. It must be thrilling to finally be good at something – you know, given how your parents failed to bestow any kind of intelligence or beauty onto you… but hey! You can hit things! Good for you.”

“Draco.” Hermione said gently and put a hand on his arm. Draco considered.

“I won’t bother with you two,” he added to Crabbe and Goyle, “I kind of doubt you would understand anyways. And hey, Greengrass? You’re a gem. Tell your sister I said congrats on getting sorted into Slytherin. Though it can hardly be considered an honor with your stupidity muddying Salazar’s name.” He said and lowered his wand, “All of you can go fuck yourselves.” He smiled before giving a mocking bow and turning away.

“Hey!” Marcus seethed, “Maybe after your father rids us of this ugly hippogriff he could just go ahead and take care of you next. He can-”

Whatever lame insult would have followed was cut off by a loud smack that seemed to echo through the grounds. Draco turned just in time to see Marcus fumbling away as he grabbed his nose in alarm while Pansy gasped loudly.

“Hermione!” Ron said somewhere between overjoyed and scandalized. Draco felt a grin start spread over his face.

“Did she hit you?” He asked and then started laughing, Pansy sneered at him as she passed with a firm arm on Marcus. “Hermione!” He said fondly. Hermione shrugged, glaring as they went. 

“Oh, come on.” She grumbled whenever Draco kept laughing and tugged him to keep walking.

“This is the best thing ever to happen to me.”

“For once, I agree with him.” Ron said and Harry gave an approving nod. “Can we expect more of this behavior of you? Maybe next time aim at the throat-”

“Does this mean I can punch people too?” Draco said eagerly and Hermione silenced them with a glare. Well then. It was worth a shot. 

“Mature.” Hermione said, but she was smiling as they went back to the common room. “Hey, before you go up to study we…” She began and trailed off as she looked at the other two. Harry blinked a few times before making a small ‘o’ with his mouth and then sprinting off to the dormitory. 

“You what?” Draco asked and yawned. “Listen, I need to figure out what a pac man is.” He said. Muggle studies was really a wild class, wasn’t it? 

“Oi,” Ron said and pushed him into a chair, “We got you something in Diagon Alley, you mangy git.”

“Don’t call me a mangy anything until you brush your hair! You’re starting to look like Harry.” Draco shot back before registering the words. “....you got me something?” He asked suspiciously. Hermione beamed as she leaned forward to grab his hands.

“It was supposed to be a Christmas gift, but… well, Ron mentioned that maybe we should give it to you early.” Hermione explained with a small shrug. “I thought of it in the shop, but Harry picked it out and really it was brilliant-”

“Okay, but we should all take a moment to thank me for getting Harry because you were going to get him a demon like you got-” Ron cut in and Hermione spun around to glare at him. 

“He’s not a-”

“Surprise!” Harry interrupted, suddenly appearing with a wary look at the other two. Without so much as a warning he pulled his hands behind his back to dump something in his lap.

Draco looked down. The something in question was long and scaly and -

“Is that a snake?” He asked and sure enough, a head poked up with beady, silver eyes and a forked tongue. Hermione leaned forward eagerly.

“It’s a magical snake!” She said as if there were any other kind of snake, “The lady in the shop said she can change colors and do all sorts of stuff-”

“And she doesn’t eat rats like certain cats do. According to Harry she likes eggs and toads...so maybe don’t tell Neville-”

“According to Harry?” Draco interrupted, turning his attention to where Harry was currently scowling at the snake. His eyes snapped up.

“Oh, yeah, I talked to her a bit. All the snakes, really. Wanted to see which one was most likely to deal with you the best. She’s a bit rude like you so…” he trailed off with a shrug. The snake’s head popped up, turning to look at Harry before hissing. “...unnecessary.” He muttered. 

“Oh, does she annoy you?” Draco asked, raising an eyebrow. Harry shrugged. “Well, I got a good name then. What do you think, Harriet?” He asked. Ron snorted, ignoring Harry’s outraged look as the snake flicked her tongue out.

“No,” Harry shook his head stubbornly, “She hates it.”

Harriet turned and lunged at him, baring its teeth at him before curling up Draco’s arm.

“I think you’re lying.” He said brightly and Harry groaned. “What’s wrong Harriet? Was that messy little half-blood being rude to you?” He asked. Hermione rolled her eyes. “...not that him being half-blood is bad or anything.” He added and the snake hissed. “No, he isn’t always like that.”

“Stop acting like you know what she’s saying!”

“What was she saying?” Draco asked and Harry paused. “...she was asking if you were always like that, wasn’t she?”

“Lucky guess.” He muttered and Draco gave a pleased laugh. Harriet was going to be a brilliant pet, he could already tell. “You’re _welcome_ by the way.” Harry added and Draco beamed up at his three friends.

“Thank you,” He said softly and ran his finger over Harriet’s head, “But also… why?” He tacked on, a little baffled by the suddenness of the gift. Hermione shrugged.

“Well, I got Crookshanks and I know you miss Ether...” Hermione said with a shrug. Draco internally faltered at that. He missed his family’s eagle owl. Both because she had been a good friend growing up and also because her absence meant no word from his family. He looked down at where Harriet and Harry were both in some kind of silent staredown and smiled.

“Thank you.” He repeated. At his voice, Harriet turned, skin turning from dark green to a dazzling purple as she slid up his arm. He should have maybe been wary of snakes given what happened last year… and that snakes were the sign of the house he had been so callously rejected from… but he found her presence a welcomed addition. 

“Actually,” Ron said suddenly, “This is closer to your birthday, isn’t it? It’s a birthday gift. Happy belated birthday.” He decided.

“You already got me birthday gifts.”

“...oh yeah. Whatever. Happy Tuesday.” He said and Harriet moved to Draco’s shoulder. Harry scoffed and hissed back. There were several minutes in which the others watched silently as Harry apparently got into a heated debate with a snake based on the flushed cheeks and increasingly offended expression. Draco cleared his throat.

“We can always get you a different snake.” He said stoically and Draco held Harriet closer. “...you know. If anything happens to it.”

“You better stay away from Harriet!” He yelped, holding it away. “You picked her out for me! No take backs!” He said and Ron hummed.

“Know the feeling, mate.” He said with a glower at Hermione. She threw her hands in the air before starting round a million out of infinity of the Crookshanks vs. Scabbers argument. 

Draco glanced down at Harriet and smiled. He had good friends… unfortunately for him, nobody (not even Harriet) could protect him the next morning. 

Draco had officially lost any shred of dignity he had ever had. This was it. This was the last straw. If there were any thoughts as to whether he actually should be in Gryffindor he was sure those were now gone. Sinking into his seat, he set the paper on the table so that it shook slightly with smoke. Ron gave a wince of sympathy.

“A howler?” He asked and Draco fixed him with a cold look, “You can try running out with it?”

“Not enough time,” Draco sighed as the paper began to smoke, “It’s about to burst as it is. I thought McGonagall wasn’t going to tell Andromeda!” He groaned. What the Hell? He had convinced her (after shameless begging) to just confide in Severus since he was technically Draco’s - wait a damn minute. 

He turned, looking to the front of the hall to find the potions’ master staring innocently back at him. Draco wasn’t sure he had ever been betrayed like this before. He stared back, shocked and outraged before the letter gave a sharp hiss to regain his attention. 

“Alright, alright-” He muttered and ripped open the envelope. “Calm dow-”

“ _DRACO LUCIUS MALFOY!”_

Yep. Here they go. The whole hall went silent… probably because they didn’t have a shred of self-preservation in their bodies. Andromeda’s voice boomed loudly over them all. He couldn’t be sure, but he was a little convinced this was louder than any howler Ron or Neville had received.

“HAVE YOU LOST YOUR GODDAMN MIND?!” Andromeda shrieked, “SOMEONE TOLD YOU THERE WAS A MURDERER ON THE LOOSE AND YOU THOUGHT YOU WOULD JUST PRANCE ABOUT THE SCHOOL AFTER HOURS?!”

_Please don’t mention Theo, please don’t mention Theo, please don’t mention Theo-_

“Meda,” Ted’s voice called in the background, “Maybe you’re overreacting. The boy helped fight a snake and He-Who-Should-Not-Be-Named. I doubt Sirius is-”

“HE SHOULDN’T HAVE DONE ANY OF THOSE THINGS EITHER!”

“Well… Draco said Dumbledore _did_ give them all points so perhaps he’s a little confused by this rewards and punishment system.”

“Thank you!” Draco shouted, throwing up his hands. Ted gets it. Unfortunately for him, this was not a conversation where his input meant anything so Andromeda kept rampaging.

“WELL THAT ENDS HERE! THERE WILL BE NO CONFUSION! I THOUGHT THIS WOULD BE A WALK IN THE PARK AFTER RAISING NYMPHODORA AND NOW I HAVE A CHILD MUCKING ABOUT LIKE A GODDAMN VIGILANTE! DO YOU UNDERSTAND HOW STRESSFUL THIS IS FOR ME!? MY SISTER MAY NOT BE SPEAKING TO YOU BUT IF YOU DIE I KNOW FOR A FACT THAT SHE’S GOING TO COME TO MY HOUSE WITH A DRESS MADE OF GALLEONS TO SUCKER PUNCH ME IN THE THROAT!” 

“Oh,” Ted’s voice continued, “Are you speaking to Narcissa again? How lovely-”

“NO, BUT I KNOW MY SISTER WELL ENOUGH! IF IT WASN’T FOR THAT TOSSER OF A HUSBAND SHE WOULD ALREADY HAVE TAKEN DRACO BACK AND - WHAT ARE WE EVEN TALKING ABOUT? DRACO, I SWEAR TO GOD YOU NEED TO STOP SCARING ME BEFORE I HAVE SEVERUS FOLLOW YOU AROUND LIKE A GOD FORSAKEN BODYGUARD!” She hissed and then, as if this entire speech wasn’t bewildering enough, the letter flew closer, suddenly whispering. “...and who is this Theo boy? Is it the same one you mentioned over the summer? The one with the lovely eyes? I will most certainly consider asking Severus to lessen your detention if you wrote back with some details.” She said. Draco groaned and buried his face in his arms. 

“AND AS FOR YOU!” Andromeda shrieked, spinning around to where the others were. Ron dropped his drumstick in alarm, “NEED I REMIND YOU THAT MOLLY AND I ARE IN CONTACT?! IF I FIND OUT YOU DRAGGED HIM ON ANOTHER ILL-ADVISED ADVENTURE THEN YOU CAN EXPECT MORE THAN A HOWLER FROM HER!”

“What?!” Ron gasped and looked around the table, “It isn’t even _me_ half of the time! I never even-”

“AND DON’T THINK I’M FORGETTING ABOUT YOU HARRY JAMES!” Andromeda snapped out. Harry, being Harry, only waved at the piece of the paper. “REMUS WAS GOOD FRIENDS WITH YOUR FATHER SO REST ASSURED I WILL BE CONTACTING HIM WITH DETAILS OF ALL OF YOUR NONSENSE OVER THE YEARS!”

“Remus Lupin?” Ted’s voice asked, “Oh, he’s a good guy. He and James were first-years when we were getting ready to graduate, weren’t they?”

“Ted. Darling. Please.” Andromeda sighed, “Though do say hello to Remus for us, Draco. And Hermione, sweetheart, thank you so much for keeping the other three in check. You really are a gift. Feel free to write to us if you need anything. I know your parents can sometimes get confused so if they need help just let us know.” She told him. Draco rolled his eyes as Hermione beamed in return. “Stay safe! Miss you!” Andromeda added as if she hadn’t just spent a majority of ten minutes screaming. The letter promptly tore itself up. 

“I really like your aunt.” Harry commented as Ron threw down his food with a loud complaint that he was dragged into things more than Draco ever was. His good nature was almost immediately dampened when Draco fixed the strap of his bag. Oh. Right. He probably shouldn’t be flouting the bag he was going to most definitely fill to the brim with everything he was going to be getting from Hogsmeade given… the situation.

“Hey, you’re going with us to Hogsmeade next weekend, right?” Hermione said with a stern look. Draco nodded as Ron immediately hit the table. 

“I can’t believe this. I cannot believe this!” Ron snapped as he looked towards a morose Harry. “First, Harry can’t go to Hogsmeade because of his twat of an uncle and now _you’re_ ditching us to hang out with your Slytherin boyfriend?” He groused. Draco rolled his eyes.

“Theo isn’t my boyfriend.” He said - perhaps a little too quickly. “We just like hanging out.”

“Well then Ron and Hermione can join you.” Harry piped in - bad mood momentarily pushed aside to annoy Draco. “You know, since it isn’t a date or anything.” He smiled because he was a twingy little git and Draco planned on haunting his dreams.

“Ron and Hermione don’t like Slytherins.” He responded coolly and smoothed out his robes, “Speaking of which,” He said, glancing over his shoulder to where Theo was waving at him. “I should go. Don’t follow me.” He added when Ron opened his mouth. Ignoring their betrayed expressions, he dashed over to where Theo was eagerly waiting with two sacks of coin in each hand. 

“Here!” He greeted and dumped one of the sacks in his hand, “So we can raid Honeydukes.” He told him with a grin. “Then maybe we can go to the Shrieking Shack… if you’re not scared that is.” He asked, eyes twinkling. Draco scoffed.

“Please, I’m not _scared_.” He shot back, hiding a grin. “I bet you would be more freaked out than I am.” He added. Theo gave a stoic nod.

“You’re right. How dare I question your Gryffindor nerves of steel?”

….damnit. He walked right into that one. 

“OI!” Ron’s voice called and the pair turned to see him and Hermione also walking down the Hall with the rest of the group. “DON’T DO ANYTHING ANDROMEDA WOULDN’T LIKE!” He shouted. Draco felt himself go bright red. Theo tilted his head.

“Is he talking to us?”

“No,” Draco said and quickly turned him away, “Don’t worry about him. He’s an idiot. Um, so yeah. Honeydukes- oh, this is Harriet.” He added when the snake popped out from his collar. Theo laughed, delighted.

“Oh, she’s beautiful!” He said and held out his finger. Harriet nudged him slightly before giving what Draco could only describe as an open mouthed smile. “Harriet?” He asked with a tilt of his head. Draco nodded solemnly.

“Her and I are united in our efforts to annoy her namesake.”

“How are you in Gryffindor?” Theo asked and grabbed his hand to tug him along. Draco felt himself flush. “Also, I hope you don’t mind that my friends might occasionally bother us.” Theo sighed, looking warily at a bunch of green clad students whispering a few feet away. “There a good lot, really, but ever since hearing that we got caught earlier they’ve been really nosy.” 

“Trust me,” Draco sighed, “I more than understand.” 

Theo only laughed and continued pulling him out the door. 

“Hermione, look. This is just ridiculous.” Ron’s voice echoed after them.

* * *

Divination was probably Draco’s favorite class. Period. Granted, he agreed with Hermione that it was all hogwash and ‘the gift’ was nothing more than expert bullshitting, but nobody could deny it was hilarious.

“Hermione,” he whispered, looking into his tea leaves, “I see… you and a mysterious stranger. Except only you know that he’s a stranger.” He said solemnly. Ron peered over to look down at his own cup. 

“Wait. Can you do this? Read Harry’s real fast-”

“He’s going to die.” Draco said as Harry gave a small humph in return. “If you ever get stuck just say Harry’s going to die. She likes that.” He said with a nod towards Trelawney who was cooing over Lavender. Hermione sighed and picked up the cup Draco had drank from.

“I see myself… throwing this tea cup at your head.” She said and Draco placed a hand over his heart in offense. “This is such a waste of time.” She muttered, placing the cup down. Draco gave a weak smile in return. 

“If only there was a way for you to steal some time for a nap.” He said dryly. Hermione really did look terrible. Dark circles under her eyes. Features getting so gaunt that she almost looked like his extended family. Her eyes flicked up - widening in alarm. 

“I don’t know what you mean.” She said quickly. Draco sighed. She definitely had a time turner… and didn’t even use it to catch up on sleep. Foolishness… And he didn’t often associate that word with Hermione. 

“I see a duck.” Harry decided beside them, “What does a duck mean?” He asked and flipped through some pages. “...oh no.” He frowned and Ron sat up with an air of concern. “You’re going to gossip too much?” He said and shook his head. “Ron. Why would you do that?”

“What? I don’t gossip!” Ron gasped and slammed his hand on the table. “It’s a scandal!” 

“There he goes again,” Draco said, “Always talking about scandals.” 

“No!” 

He didn’t know why Hermione didn’t like divination. It was so much fun… unlike muggle studies, which was decidedly not fun and actually kind of stressful. He was lucky he had Ron to confer with. As the only other pureblood in the group, he brought valuable insight into Draco’s homework.

“...I mean, maybe the tail is a weapon?”

“Maybe, but it’s supposed to go in a kitchen.” Draco frowned, tilting his head at the item in front of him and Ron, tapping a finger on his leg thoughtfully. “Does it keep pests away from the food, maybe?” He said. Ron frowned.

“Then what are the two slits for?”

“Could be a cage.”

“Too thin.”

“...does it kill something?” Draco asked, a little alarmed at how barbaric it all seemed. Ron shook his head before suddenly clapping his hands.

“I got it!” He said and Draco perked up, “My dad always goes on about muggles using triscuits in the city.” He said. Draco stared at him blankly. “It’s like...fire, but in a wall, I think?”

“Why do muggles need fire in a wall?” He asked and then frowned, “How are not more things on fire? Is there some sort of cooling system?” Before Ron could even attempt to answer anything, the door to the common room swung open to reveal Hermione and Harry both discussing something loudly only to pause at where Ron and Draco were sitting with a muggle contraption between them.

“...what are you doing?” Harry asked and Draco groaned, flopping to the ground with a wail of despair.

“I’m supposed to figure out what this is for my muggle studies class and now Ron is saying there is fire in walls and we haven’t even _covered_ triscuits in the city!” He groaned. Hermione tilted her head. “What even happens if you don’t live in the city? It doesn’t make sense.” He whispered.

“...electricity?” She ventured and Ron wrinkled his nose.

“Ele - what the bloody hell is that?” He asked, sitting up. “Is that the fire in the walls?”

“Hermione don’t tell them. Never tell them.” Harry intervened solemnly. Draco mouthed a few choice words over Hermione’s shoulder to which Harry feigned a scandalized gasp. Tyrant. 

“No. Ronald, stop - there's no fire… Let me just show you.” Hermione sighed and picked up the contraption. “Come on, there are outlets in the muggle studies room.” She said. Ron frowned, repeating outlets under his breath. Draco was relieved he wasn’t the only one thrown as they raced to follow her out the door. 

“See?” Hermione said when she dragged them into the classroom to put the poor thing’s tail into the wall. Draco frowned. “Then you put bread in here and-”

“We should let them see themselves.” Harry interrupted as he walked over to press down a lever that made the bread disappear. Draco frowned. What was the _point_ of this? “You should probably both get closer,” Harry advised them, “Otherwise you might miss it.”

“Miss what?” Ron asked, but joined Draco in shuffling closer to the weird, metal box as they waited. Nothing happened.

“...is it broken?” He asked and Ron shook his head.

“No, look. It feels warm.” He said and Draco placed his hand on the side. It was pretty warm. Maybe this was a heater? Not a very good -

Whatever else he might have been thinking was cut off by a sudden pop that had both him and Ron scrambling away. Ron shrieked, diving behind him as Draco yanked at his wand.

“ _Riddikulus!”_ He yelped and the box fell over, revealing two blackened pieces of bread. There was a pause as he turned to where Harry was laughing. “What the _Hell?”_ He shouted as Ron straightened up, “You muggles just have things throwing out bread? Why do you have that? Who do you think you are?!”

“It’s _toast,_ Draco _-_ ”

“I don’t care what it is, there is no reason to be flinging food in the goddamn air! This isn't a circus, my _God_!” He shouted. Hermione smiled at the ground as Ron immediately began complaining to her. Harry, being an asshole, was practically doubling over with laughter. “Alright, get over here, Potter. I’m going to kick the damn glasses off of you-” He began. Whatever else he might have said was cut off by a scream.

Silence followed. 

“Um,” Draco began and pointed at the three of them, “We aren’t investigating that.” 

“Someone could need help.” Harry said cautiously. Draco threw his hands up in the air. He was about to list all the reasons that someone needing help wasn’t their problem when the door swung open to reveal Neville holding Trevor with wide eyes.

“Are you okay?” Draco asked, sitting up. “Don’t worry, it isn’t on.” He added with a nod towards the muggle contraption behind them. Neville wasn’t looking at that though. He blinked a few times before speaking.

“The Fat Lady… she’s gone!”

* * *

Two words: Bloody. Dementors. 

That was the reason they lost against Hufflepuff. The reason Harry fell hundreds of feet from the sky. It was terrifying to turn and see a figure plummeting to the ground with wisps of black following him. Part of Draco wanted to race towards him, but there was a moment of chilly nothingness that left him frozen. 

_“First, you brainwash my only child by allowing him to consort with lowborns and refuse to let him leave that awful house and now you let a monster wreak havoc-”_

The words flooded his mind as skin felt as though it was hardening into ice. He wanted to push them away, but it felt as though tendrils were curling into his mind - bringing forward memories he didn't he know he had.

_“Gryffindors… please. Draco, you’ll learn soon enough that they are lowlifes whose blood is muddier than the dirt they walk on.”_

Screaming. There was a lot of screaming. 

_“-don’t understand why they even bother with him. He's never going to change. Hermione must see that.”_

The game ended with Diggory catching the snitch. The guy was nice enough to offer a rematch upon realizing what had happened. Not that Draco really cared. In fact, he found himself heading straight from visiting Harry in the hospital wing to the DADA room, staring at the wardrobe shoved at the other end of the room. They had long moved past boggarts, but the wardrobe stayed… like a taunting ghost.

“If I didn’t know any better,” A voice said as Draco glanced away from the wardrobe in question, “I would say something is bothering you.” 

“Your intuition is unmatched, professor.” Draco sighed and looked over. Lupin gave a weak smile, “It isn’t very considerate of you, you know.” He added quietly, “You don’t know what people are hiding. What if someone’s parents walked out of that thing and the whole class saw?” He asked. Lupin frowned

“Do you think that’s what it’ll be for you?”

“No,” Draco scoffed and glanced back at the wardrobe, “But… I would rather people not jump to assumptions if something… unexpected comes out.” He muttered and ran a hand through his hair. Lupin came closer, sitting next to him with thoughtful eyes.

“Boggarts are something you’re going to come across eventually. You have to know how to deal with them.” He said softly. Draco closed his eyes. “Maybe we can work on it outside of class-”

“What if the spell doesn’t work for me?” He asked, voice going embarrassingly shaky. “I… not everything can be silly or fun. I don’t know how to…” He said and ran a hand through his hair. “I should go.” He decided and stood up. Lupin grabbed his arm.

“Seeing it once would make it easier.” He said and gave a pointed look around the room, “Nobody else is here.” He said. Draco stared for a moment before his eyes went back to the shaking wardrobe.

“...okay.” He breathed out and brought out his wand. “And you can make it change?” He asked, a bit uncertainly. Lupin smiled before tapping the side of the wardrobe. There was a low creak and Draco involuntarily stepped back as the door swung open. 

At first, nothing happened.

“Well, isn’t this a surprise.” A voice drawled out and Draco flinched on impulse. “You know, I had thought you might turn out pathetic, but honestly… this is just sad.” The boggart said… because it was a _boggart_. It wasn’t real. Just a fake, magical image that meant nothing. He risked a glance at Lupin who was staring in subtle surprise. Useless. Just as Draco had expected him to be.

“Riddikulus.” He said firmly, holding his wand out. Nothing happened. The boggart took another step out.

“Did you really think that would work?” It asked. God, Draco hated this. It was dressed in Slytherin robes, perfectly pressed and cleaned. Sharp eyes. Cold smile. He held up his wand again.

 _“Riddikulus_.” 

“You’re ridiculous,” the boggart scoffed and Draco lowered his wand in frustration, “What are you even doing? You’re scared of _me?_ Really?” It asked and Draco gave a sharp intake. “What? Oh, come on. Let’s talk it out. You like talking about your feelings now, right?” It asked.

“Stop.” Draco said and tried to raise his wand again. “ _Riddikulus. Riddikulus!”_

“Are you afraid of becoming me?” It asked and Draco considered, “Or… maybe you’re afraid that you _want_ to be me. Just a little.” It said and tsked, “Oh, what would your friends think? Hermione would be so hurt that maybe deep down you’re still a mudblood-hating daddy’s boy who won’t ever be enough-”

“Change.” Lupin’s voice said, stepping in front of him. Immediately, Draco watched as the Slytherin-clad version of himself melted away, forming a moon before Lupin flicked his wand.

“Riddikulus.” He said and it disappeared with a puff of smoke. Draco blinked a few times, trying to regain balance. 

“Why did you leave it for so long?” He finally snapped back and when Lupin turned, yanked his bag off one of the desks, “I told you it was a bloody bad idea-”

“Draco-”

“Don’t!” He yelled, spinning around, “Don’t… be all pitying and…” He threw up his hands, “You can’t tell anyone. Please.” He said, voice growing a little desperate. “I don’t want anyone to think that I… I just don’t know what any of it means!” He tried again and Lupin held up a hand.

“It’s okay to be confused. Fear isn’t always clear.” 

“I just miss my parents sometimes, okay? I miss my family and my home and… maybe I still wish I was in Slytherin sometimes, but it doesn’t mean I want to hurt anyone or that I hate muggleborns or I’m not trying because I am! I'm trying and I know it might not be enough, but-”

“Draco,” Lupin interrupted and stepped forward to grab his shoulders. “It’s okay.” He said gently. “Hey… it’s okay.” He said and bit his lip, “There is something I want to see though… Do you mind me opening it back up?” He asked.

Yes. Yes, Draco minded a lot. He didn’t say that though. He only gave Lupin a pained look before pulling his wand back out.

“You won’t need that. Just say ‘change’ every so often. It’ll reset the boggart.”

“Why-?”

“Trust me.” Lupin told him and went back to the wardrobe. Draco didn’t really trust him, but it appeared he wasn’t going to be given much of a choice as the wardrobe door was flung open once more. Draco internally groaned.

This time, the version of Draco that stepped out wasn’t in Slytherin colors at all. In fact, he wasn’t even in robes. He instead wore trousers and a sweater and… was he a _muggle?_ Or at least dressed like one.

“Change.” He frowned and there was a brief blur of color as a new version of himself stood in front donned in a death eater uniform. “Change.” He said quickly. This time the Draco in front of him looked older and-

“Change.” Lupin’s voice interrupted before flicking his wand to rid them of the boggart altogether. “Interesting…” He murmured and looked at Draco thoughtfully. “It looks as if you’re afraid of becoming a million different things.” He assessed.

“...brilliant.” Draco muttered sarcastically. 

“So maybe,” Lupin continued, “To get rid of it you need to focus on what you _want_ to be rather than something that amuses you.” He said. Draco sighed. What he _wanted_ to be? Well, he didn’t bloody well know, did he? “Maybe take some time to think it over.” He added gently. 

“Sure,” Draco sighed and looked down at his wrist. Harriet was there, watching with ever changing eyes as if she somehow knew he was under duress. He smiled weakly and ran a finger over her head. Lupin watched thoughtfully. 

“How are they? Your parents, I mean. You don’t seem… angry with them. Based on everything I’ve heard, you should be.” He said. Draco should have been annoyed he was being so casually talked about, but… he found himself considering Lupin’s question.

“I’m not sure I was ever really enough for them,” he said slowly, “I’m not really sure I’m enough for anyone to be quite honest.” He scoffed and rubbed the side of his arm, “People want me to be so many different things. It’s… well, scary.” He grimaced with a nod towards the wardrobe. “I want to be them. I like making the people I care about happy.” He admitted quietly and bit his lip. “I don’t think my parents are bad people.” He said and turned to look fully at Lupin. “I know I’m supposed to think that because they believe horrible things… and I know it makes me bad to tolerate it despite the fact I know better, but… I’ve seen good things too. My mom used to read me to sleep every night. We had servants to cook for us, but she used to make me blackberry pie herself because she knew it my favorite. My father would sometimes take the day off of work to just spend the day with me and take me places. He never let anything hurt me. They… they loved me. I know they did.” He said and cringed at the wistfulness in his voice. 

“Family is tricky.” Lupin said quietly and reached over to put a hand on his shoulder. Draco shrugged it away. “You know,” he said as he walked back over to the wardrobe to shove it back into the corner of the room. “I was a little surprised to learn that a Malfoy could be sorted into Gryffindor of all places.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t ever feel particularly brave,” Draco admitted, “I wouldn’t do half of what I do if it weren’t for the others.” He said and Lupin laughed. 

“There are different types of bravery,” he smiled and turned back around to face him. “You know, I actually knew your mother, a bit. Not a lot, but… we had a mutual friend… in a way.” He mused and looked over Draco for a moment. “Don’t get me wrong. She was cold and snobby and… very Slytherin.” He smiled, “But did you know that when Andromeda started dating Ted Tonks that Bellatrix nearly killed her? Narcissa stood between them. She said it was to keep Bellatrix from getting in trouble, but…” He clicked his tongue. “Well, I won’t conjecture with you.” He mused. “Let’s just say I’m not surprised that her son has the same fierceness in him.” 

God, Draco missed his mom so bloody much.

“Thank you,” he said and turned away. Right before he left, he paused and looked back at Lupin. “Harry’s boggart,” he said with a nod towards the shaking wardrobe. “The dementor… you’ll help him with that, right? So that what happened today doesn’t happen again?” He asked. Lupin’s smile grew a bit softer. 

“I’ll certainly try my best.”

It was a surprisingly satisfying answer.

* * *

It was during another trip to Hogsmeade that his friends once again showed up to ruin his life. 

“So,” Draco was explaining, “It turns out there is a whole debate on what to call them. We call them muggles, obviously, but turns out the base of the word ‘mug’ means ‘to fool’ so others think it isn’t a very nice term. However, in America they call them no-maj, which is… well, it means no magic, which you wouldn’t think is all that bad, but the history there is a bit complicated.” He admitted. Theo smiled as he took a sip of his drink, watching with bemused eyes.

“So you like muggle studies then?” He asked. Draco wrinkled his nose.

“Maybe,” he said slowly, “It… is really confusing and I still don’t get some things, but it’s interesting.” He admitted and fell back in his chair, “It makes it easier to talk to Ted and Hermione.” He said. Theo nodded. 

“That makes sense - oh, you have something right there.” Theo nodded and before Draco could react, he leaned over and brushed his thumb over his cheek. Draco’s cheeks burned. Theo sat back, nonplussed. “Anyways, I kind of wanted to ask you something…” He said.

Why did he feel nervous? Should he be nervous? Oh, God. He was nervous. Theo looked nervous too. Even worse.

“Um, sure.” Draco told him and fiddled with the edge of his sleeve. This was embarrassing. He should at least _compose_ himself better. Taking a deep breath, he sat up with a polite smile as Theo rubbed the back of his neck.

“Well, you know… the um, Quidditch World Cup is happening over the summer.” Theo said and gave a small shrug, “My parents and brother are sitting with the minister, but they said they would buy me two tickets so I could invite someone. They’re really good seats, well, obviously, you would know, I guess. I was just sort of wondering if you maybe wanted to come with me?” He said and cringed a bit at the end. “You don’t have to, but I thought-”

“That sounds brilliant.” Draco interrupted him… and meant it surprisingly. “I’d need to ask my aunt though…”

“The one who sent you the howler?”

“The very same.” Draco sighed. Theo gave a bright laugh at that. It was a nice laugh, he thought offhandedly. Not condescending or even a little fake. He liked it. “Um… are you… inviting anyone else?” He asked cautiously. Theo paused.

“I wasn’t going to… should I?” He frowned and then blinked, “Oh, I mean. My parents would probably pay if you wanted Potter or Weasley to go! Well, actually, no they wouldn’t, but I won’t name them. In fact, I didn’t say I was going with you specifically so better not tell them that bit. But if I tell them I need more for Granger or something I can-”

“No!” Draco cut him off, a bit louder than he needed to be. “I mean, I… Just us is fine.” He said. Theo beamed in return. From somewhere behind them a chair tumbled back with a slight gasp. 

“ _Ronald!”_

...oh, he was going to bloody kill them. Draco glanced over at Theo who had been pulled away by another classmate offering him a drink. Draco grimaced.

“Hey, can you give me a minute?” He asked, regaining his attention. “I just remembered I need to send a quick message.” He said and bolted before Theo could question his excuse too much. Following the small path next to the knocked over chair, he reached out until he felt silk cloth beneath his fingers. “What the _Hell?!”_ He hissed and yanked it down. Lo and behold. Two idiots and a guilty Hermione sat underneath.

“Oh, um. Hi Draco.” Ron said and quickly put the cloak back over Harry before anyone could see him. “How are you?”

“Were you _spying on me?”_

“No.” 

“What? No!”

“Why can’t we come to the World Cup?” Harry asked from underneath the cloak. Hermione closed her eyes. “Also, he stares at your lips a lot. Is that normal?” He asked and Draco flushed.

“No, he _doesn’t_.”

“Does to.”

“No!”

“Stop it,” Hermione interjected, “We didn’t mean to interrupt. It’s just… well,” she gestured to Harry. “We wanted to say hi since breaking the rules is apparently fine.” She added under her breath.

“Yeah, but now that we’re here I want some clarification.” Ron said and crossed his arms over his chest, “You don’t want us with you at the World Cup? Is it because you’re going to be too busy kissing each other’s cheeks to actually watch the match?”

Draco felt his face burn. Luckily, Harriet seemed to sense his distress and popped up to hiss at him. Harry made some hissing noises from under the cloak.

“Stop arguing with my snake,” Draco snapped at him and pinched the bridge of his nose, “This is bloody ridiculous. Harry, I’ve heard Hermione point out _numerous_ times that Sirius Black is trying to kill you. Numerous. That means many. So why are you sneaking around so that he can kill you?” He asked, crossing his arms over his chest. 

“....he hasn’t killed me yet.” Harry’s voice grumbled. Ron gave a slight shrug at that as Hermione closed her eyes again. “Besides, I’m with you. Let’s just go to Zonko’s or - _hide!”_ He said and Draco almost yelped as he was dragged under a table. “Professor McGonagall.” He whispered.

“And why do _we_ have to hide?” He asked. 

“Shhh!” Ron said. Draco turned to look at Hermione. Was this a joke? Why did they have such dumb friends? When they got back to the common room Draco was going to bind Harry to a bloody bed. It was like he didn’t even care that he could get murdered by a man with mediocre hair. 

Of course, the reveal that Sirius Black was, in fact, James Potter’s best friend and Harry’s godfather made things a little… unfortunate. 

“I got this,” Draco told Ron and Hermione after Harry and launched himself out of the Three Broomsticks. Why the actual Hell were professors casually discussing this information in a pub anyways? Ridiculous. “Could you guys go back and tell Theo I’ll meet up with him a little bit?” He asked. He hoped Theo wasn’t mad…

Whatever. He had a to get to Harry before his newly dubbed godfather popped out and shanked him. Chances are if he knew James then he probably knew about James’ invisibility cloak. 

“Harry?” He called and shuffled a little closer to the woods. He could see footprints. Sighing, he followed until they ran out by the base of a tree. “Hi.” He said and kneeled down in front of him. Grimacing, he reached out and pulled off the cloak. “I’m sorry.” He told him. Harry glanced up, his hands were trembling - from the cold or rage he was a little uncertain.

“I’m going to kill him.”

Oh. So it was that kind of day, was it?

“You’re… going to kill a full-grown man who has murdered multiple people already?” He asked. Harry looked up at him with a scowl. “Sorry. Um, I’ll help you.” He said. Wait. That wasn’t the right response either. “...I’m sorry.” He said again and this time leaned forward to hug him. Draco still wasn’t thrilled with the whole hugging thing, but… well, it was growing on him. Maybe. Harry certainly enjoyed it based on how tightly he clutched back at him - almost as if afraid Draco might disappear. 

“Why did they even trust him?” Harry muttered as he pulled away. “I mean, after all you said he was-” He began and cut himself off. Draco inwardly flinched. Right, Sirius Black. His cousin. Who had been sorted into Gryffindor, apparently. Part of him wondered if Harry was re-evaluating their entire relationship now. “We… we should find Ron and Hermione. Or I will.” he said dusted himself up. Draco felt his insides shrivel slightly at the rapid change of atmosphere. 

“What?” He began and tried to shove away the words before it settled uncomfortably at the pit of his stomach.

“Don’t you have to get back to Nott?” Harry asked, turning to look at him with hardened eyes. Draco wasn’t sure why the anger hurt so much. He knew it wasn’t meant for him. Not really. “Pretend you're a Slytherin or whatever it is you do with him.” He muttered and turned away before Draco had a chance to respond. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Being 13 is hard... being 13 and finding out your godfather is the reason your parents died is probs even harder tho. I hope y'all like Harriet! She's my dream pet. Some exciting things to look forward to: Theo's friends (aka more Slytherins) and some (very) subtle Merlin content as most of y'all probs know me from that fandom lol. 
> 
> btw somewhere Fred & George are playing an underaged drinking game where they take a shot every time Harry asks if Theo is Draco's boyfriend. Pray for them bc it will be asked again next chapter I'm pretty sure.


	6. Year Three (In Which Draco Meets Some Extended Family)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like the last chapter was to celebrate the election ending and then the election just... didn't end lmao. I expected all the recounts, but bruh. This is a long ass time period to wait. Since I'm going to be without internet (again) this weekend we can have another chapter lmao. I'll see you next week!

Draco was an understanding person…

...sort of. 

Look, he understood there was an obvious ‘Sirius Back and Draco Malfoy’ parallel going on here. He understood that the fact they were technically blood made it stronger. He understood Harry was acting purely on emotion because he found out a lot of distressing things quickly and the guy was an orphan with some serious issues. Like, seriously, Draco was astounded by the fact he was sent to live with _muggles_ who _hated_ him (Draco actually used the word ‘abused’ once but everyone got a little huffy at that… whatever, he wasn’t wrong. Andromeda agreed) and then got thrust into a world where he was famous and found out everything about him was a lie… then just… didn’t have a mental breakdown about it. Weird. 

The point was, while Draco was so wonderfully understanding of all this… Harry was still acting like a dick and for that reason Draco refused to talk to him.

Like, what the _Hell?_

Not to mention he was now being a dick to Hermione. Hermione. _Hermione_ who didn’t deserve anyone to be rude to her after everything she had done for them. Granted, Draco did get a look at the Firebolt Harry got for Christmas and it _was_ spectacular, but Hermione was right. Sirius Black might have sent it and the last thing anyone needed was for Harry to get thrown off his broom… again. 

Honestly, did nobody remember when his broom was jinxed last time? Did that just not matter? 

Whatever. There was a rather sharp divide between them. It also didn’t help that Crookshanks was after Scabbers again (Harriet was _not_ involved in that nonsense because _she_ was refined). Draco was also irritated because someone kept stealing all his favorite soaps (he suspected it could be Ron, but quite honestly he was as dirty as ever). None of this would have happened if he got sorted into Slytherin, he was certain.

Which, ironically, was why he found himself surrounded by more Slytherins. Well, okay, he was mainly hanging out with Theo’s friends, but he really liked them. In fact, he even tentatively introduced Hermione to them after he was sure they weren’t going to break her already faltering mental health.

“Hey,” Zoe Accrington said one afternoon as she slammed her bag down next to them studying in the courtyard. The sky around them brightened a bit at her approach. “Granger, you’re good with charms, right?” She asked as Theo practically sprinted over.

“No - leave her _alone!”_ He called and Draco watched with a hint of amusement as he bent over to catch his breath despite the short run, “Sorry, Granger. I know you guys are studying-”

“Shh… Theo, you’re not my keeper.” Zoe said and leaned over to pick up a galleon Draco hadn't noticed on the ground. She turned back to Hermione. “Anyways, I’m struggling with the engorgio charm. Do you think you could help me?” She asked, tucking a strand of shockingly gold hair behind her ear. Hermione blinked a few times. “Oh, sorry! I haven’t given you enough time to stare!” Zoe said and leaned back with a laugh.

“Oh,” Hermione said, putting a hand over her chest, “I didn’t-”

“Nah, it’s alright,” Zoe laughed, “It’s part of the curse.” She shrugged as Hermione seemed a bit at loss over how to respond. Draco had to admit that Zoe was a little distracting to be around. Not only was her hair gold, but her pupils were too (yes, her _pupils_ … her irises were brown, which made her whole appearances a bit jarring). 

“The… curse?” Hermione repeated slowly.

Draco inwardly chuckled. Hermione was probably one of the smartest people he knew, but even she didn't know _everything_ about the wizarding world. Maybe they should have wizarding studies for muggleborns as a class. It would help keep Harry from asking stupid questions and Hermione would love it.

“Zoe is a malnatus.” Theo explained, “It’s what happens if someone drinks a potion they’re not supposed to when pregnant. Like, if a parent were under the influence of a love potion than a child might come out unable to love. Or if a parent had too much calming draught then the kid might not be able to feel anything other than calmness… or the opposite in some cases,” He explained and Hermione gave a small gasp.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude.” She began, looking downright horrified. Zoe chuckled, looking Hermione over.

“Oh, don’t even worry about it. Half the time it’s a real treat.” She said, sitting down between Draco and Hermione.

“Why half the time?” She asked cautiously, looking fearful and curious at once. Zoe nodded, picking at her robes as Theo rolled his eyes behind her. Draco bit back a grin. He had heard Zoe explain her predicament a few times already and he was pretty sure she liked telling the story. 

“Well, you see, my dear Granger, my mother always wanted to have two children. However, she decided early on that she didn’t like that whole pregnancy business and it would be much better if she had twins so she only had to go through it once,” Zoe explained. Hermione gave a slight nod of acknowledgement, book slightly falling from her grasp as she leaned forward to listen, “Her solution was to drink Felix Felicis everyday so she would have twins. My father ended up drinking a lot of it too, which is quite a feat considering how hard it is to get. Anyways, as luck would have it, she did have a beautiful pair of twins!” Zoe said, clapping her hands to emphasize the point. “However, my poor brother and I got a bit of a… complication. One of us had bad luck and the other has good luck. It always switches back and forth. Like, right now, I’m the lucky one!” She said, gesturing to her hair, “In a few days it’ll be his turn and my hair and eyes won’t be gold anymore and _he’ll_ be the one walking around like a newly minted galleon. Then I’ll have to deal with my luck being horrid for a bit.” She pouted, putting a dramatic hand over her chest. 

“Wow,” Hermione breathed out. There was no doubt empathy in her expression, but Draco could see fascination bubbling underneath, “Is your brother also in Slytherin?”

“Hm? Oh, dear me. No.” Zoe laughed, “He goes to Durmstrang. We actually can’t be around one another very much. Have you ever seen what happens when good and bad luck collide?” She asked. Hermione opened her mouth, but Zoe didn’t give her much of a chance to respond, “Though, in truth, I think my mum originally planned it that way so she would stop mixing us up.” She chuckled. Hermione tilted her head, “We’re identical.” She added.

“Oh,” Hermione said, a bit eagerly, “You know, muggles actually looked at the genetics of twins and their chromosomes very closely and found that even if girls and boys look alike they aren’t actually identical. Technically, you can only be identical if you’re the same sex, which is _fascinating.”_ She said. Draco snorted. Of _course_ she was a nerd over muggle stuff too. "It is!" She told him.

Zoe tilted her head a bit, golden hair spilling down her back so that it blinded some students behind them.

“That is fascinating,” she agreed, “Not that I know what a chromo...calzone… is….” She said slowly, wrinkling her nose a bit. Hermione chuckled, “But I think my brother and I might be considered identical by muggle standards too.” She mused, more to herself than anyone else. “Perhaps we can discuss it later. Do your kind of muggles care much about that stuff?” She asked curiously, "Draco says you don't, but Draco's also a liar."

Rude, but okay. Hermione tilted her head. Draco could see her brows furrowing together before something clicked. 

“Oh! No - well, some, but not all of them do,” she began and paused, eyes flicking to Draco before turning back to Zoe. “Do magical people care much about that stuff?” She asked and Zoe shrugged. 

“Not really. People like the Notts and Malfoys act like it’s an inconvenience for their weird breeding rituals, but it’s mostly just muggleborns that _really_ have a problem with it, which is why I asked,” she explained with a hint of wariness. It was only there for a moment before the giddiness returned. “Anyways, charms?” Zoe asked, redirecting the conversation to the original question. Draco watched as Hermione’s clearly fatigued mind tried to remember what she had even asked about charms. 

“Oh,” She flushed, “Um… yes, I can help you.” She said warily and rubbed the side of her arm. “Do… would you mind if, um, it was a bit public?” She asked and then winced, “Not because I don’t like Slytherins! I mean, Theo is nice, but just because we don’t really know each other and after the muggleborn stuff last year-” She rambled awkwardly, voice growing a bit more panicked towards the end. 

“Nah, I get it.” Zoe said with a wave of her hand. “Pansy and her lot are a bunch of… well, pansies. Some muggleborns are okay, I guess. You seem nice.” She said and flicked her hair over her shoulder again, “We aren’t too bad either. Bridget is wonderful. You would really like her - oh, Tristam is brilliant too - his grandmother was a banshee so you know he has some stories about _that_.” She said with a snort. “Sadie is cool, but a _terrible_ flirt with everyone and I do mean _everyone_ so if that makes you uncomfortable you better stay away. And, well, you know Theo.” She said with a small smirk towards the other boy. 

“Well,” Hermione said hesitantly, “Maybe we can spend time together at Hogsmeade sometime.” She suggested and Zoe beamed. 

“Wonderful! I guess it's my lucky day!” She told her, cackling at her own (very bad) joke, and leaned over to kiss either side of Hermione’s cheeks. “I’ll get back to you on the charms thing!” She said and bolted up, “Tristam! Darling, don’t move. Your hair looks _horrid_.” She said and stormed over to where a boy was passing by. He froze, hands immediately going to beautifully braided hair in alarm as Zoe bounced over to right a few wayward strands. Theo sighed.

“Sorry about her. She talks _a lot_ on her lucky days, but she is super nice… Can I join you?” He asked. Draco glanced at Hermione, who nodded and patted the open seat beside them. “Are you working on the hippogriff thing?” He asked. Hermione sighed. Unlike Harry and Ron, she had been trying to help Hagrid after Pansy and Draco’s father made a mess of things. 

“Yeah,” he said with a shake of his head, “It’s… not easy to be a lawyer for a hippogriff.” He said with a wary glance at Hermione. She really looked terrible. Dark bags were under her eyes and her skin much too pale. Her eyes were bloodshot and hair even messier than usual – which was saying something. He really did have quite a few friends with bad hair, didn't he?

“I can see that,” Theo said and shook his head, “Draco caught me up on a lot of what you’ve been doing. I’m here to take over. You look exhausted.” He said, handing her an apple. “I got this hippogriff nonsense. You sleep.” He said and Hermione laughed, a bit hysterically.

“That’s really sweet, but I can’t. I have too much to do. After this my arithmetic and my history of magic and my-”

“Ah, yes. Your classes that happen all at the same time,” Draco cut in and fixed her with a firm look, “But you can do that. Because of a time turner,” He said flatly and Hermione froze. “I don’t know how you thought you could keep it from me. I’m a pureblood and smarter than pretty much everyone. Other than you. Maybe.” He grinned and Theo shrugged.

“...yeah. Tristam and I figured it out too.” He said. Hermione went downright white. 

“You _can’t_ tell-” She whispered, voice breaking. Draco waved her off.

“We won’t. But what I don’t get is why you can’t just sleep for a couple extra hours and then turn back time.” He said “And before you give me all that rubbish about promising McGonagall you would be wonderful, shut it. Being alive is important too.”

“I’m not supposed to-”

“You can be so straight edged sometimes.” Draco groaned “Take a bloody nap, Granger.” He told her and tugged the book out of her grip. “Seriously. You look awful.”

“Yeah, Draco and I are both fairly intelligent. We can take care of hippogriff research. I even asked Bridget if she could help out after potions. She’s kind of a nerd about magical creatures so she’s already trying to see if she can buy it to put on her family’s animal conservation instead.” He said. Hermione blinked a few times, tears welling slightly. Without giving poor Theo a warning, she threw herself at him. Theo snorted and patted her back. 

“ _Thank you,” s_ he breathed out and rubbed her eyes. “A nap sounds nice,” she admitted. “Are you sure?” She asked. Theo and Draco both nodded. “Thank you,” she repeated with a yawn before gathering up her things to slowly drag herself up towards the common room. Theo stared after her.

“I see why you like her,” he finally said. Draco tugged a book from his grasp, “Potter still acting like a jerk with bad hair then?” he added and Draco bristled. 

“As if _you_ can talk about bad hair,” he shot back, oddly defensive. Then blinked. Theo also seemed slightly taken aback by the comment. “Sorry,” Draco told him with a frown, “I guess I’m not really used to fighting with him. Not like this anyways,” he explained slowly. Theo nodded. “Besides, I’m usually the one who is mean to him.” 

“Right,” Theo told him, “Only you can make fun of Potter’s hair. Got it.” He told him, sounding slightly somewhere between bemused and concerned. Draco rolled his eyes. Whatever. He was just used to anyone daring to criticize the infamous Harry Potter being an enemy. Hermione and Ron didn’t bully him as they should. “I’ll just redirect my incredible wit and intelligence to defending Buckbeak.” He told him. Draco sniffed. 

“To be perfectly clear,” He said as he clicked his tongue, “I’m smarter than you.”

Theo laughed.

“Whatever you say, my brash Gryffindor peer.”

* * *

The case stood as follows:

 **Plaintiff:** Ronald B. Weasley

 **Defendant:** Hermione J. Granger

 **Accusation:** Plaintiff accused defendant of not controlling her cat (named Crookshanks) and allowing it to feed on the plaintiff's rat (named Scabbers). The evidence stands as follows - Scabbers is missing. Crookshanks has been said to hold past hostile behavior towards Scabbers. Ginger hair was found on the bed of the plaintiff along with blood on the sheets.

It was really a shame this happened so quickly after everyone all made up (well, not Draco and Harry exactly, but everyone else). All in all, it was a nasty case, but Draco was firm on his side of things. Much to Hermione’s dismay, Draco had to side with Ron on this one. This was on the basis that there _was_ blood on his sheets and also Draco was feeling empathetic now that he had Harriet. He really only had the snake for less than a year now, but if anything ever happened to her Draco was pretty sure he might become the next Voldemort. He had already written his Aunt Andromeda to inform her Harriet was now a permanent part of Draco’s life and his only request is that the snake outlive him.

Harry said (back when they were still talking) that he was being dramatic, but whatever. Harriet really was great. He could talk to her about stuff without feeling self-conscious, she did lots of cool things like change color and spit a sort of non-venomous (but truly awful smelling) substance at people he didn’t like, and, according to Severus, her shedded skin was perfect for concocting Skele-Gro - really the list was endless. 

She could also grow and shrink! It was perfect for when he wanted to carry her around and also when he wanted to terrify people and have a four foot snake lounging about. Wood had even allowed her to ride on the handle of his broom during quidditch practice as long as he wasn’t distracted. 

Most importantly, she annoyed Harry, which was just hilarious. 

So, yeah, he was with Ron on this one.

However, he was pretty sure he had a good way to get everyone back on friendly terms. While he and Harry weren’t ‘officially’ fighting there had definitely been a coldness between them after the whole Sirius Black reveal. It definitely didn't help that Harry seemed to get more and more agitated every time he saw Draco with the Slytherins. Draco figured one way to combat the situation was to maybe introduce him to the more… fun side of his Slytherin friends.

“Guys. Hello. Hi. Move. Sit. We must speak.” Draco said. The other three looked at him in varying states of surprise. “Don’t freak out, but…” he held up both his hands. “Future day is here.” He said and leaned in more, “And Theo and Zoe said we can come celebrate with them.” 

There was a pause. Did they not hear him? Did they not understand the _gravity_ of this situation?

“Future day?” Harry finally asked at the same time Ron shook his head in awe.

“You know, with how mean you are I forget that you are actually a massive nerd.” He said and Draco glared. “You don’t really believe that rubbish, do you? I mean, I can be a bit superstitious, but...” He raised his eyebrows. Draco bristled as Hermione curiously looked back and forth between them.

“We don’t know everything about the universe!”

“You _do_ , oh my God-”

“What is Future day?” Harry repeated. Draco rolled his eyes. Honestly. It has only been three years since he discovered he was a wizard. One would think he would have brushed up on some things now.

“It’s a holiday,” Ron said before Draco could explain, “Mainly a pureblood one, but I’m sure others have converted as well-”

“Shut up. It’s not just a pureblood holiday. Purebloods just know lots about it because it is part of what is passed down every generation… as anyone with _class_ would know.” He said and Ron gave a sarcastic gesture, “Okay, you know King Arthur?”

“Like from the legends?” Harry asked. Draco stared.

“We literally talk about Merlin all the time, you dimwit. He was in Slytherin. He went to this school. Obviously, King Arthur is not a legend.” He said and ran a hand over his face. God. “Anyways, many years ago a seer proclaimed that one day King Arthur would come back to life after dying in battle. So Merlin, who was very much real, started a tradition that every year on the anniversary of the king’s death, we celebrate to help him return to the land of the living. We call it Future day.”

“...that does sound nerdy.” Harry said and Draco narrowed his eyes. 

“To be clear,” Ron (unhelpfully) jumped in, “Not only does this lot think a dead guy is going to pop out of a lake, but they also pretend to be in ye olden times as to not alarm the chap if he does come about.” Ron mocked. Draco kicked him under the table.

“Okay, but if you woke up after being dead for thousands of years you would be alarmed too!”

“He isn’t coming back from the dead, Draco!” 

“I don’t truly think the wizarding world has changed too much in the last thousand years to warrant such a thing-” Harry began and Draco threw up his hands.

“Shhh!” Draco said and pressed his hands together in a sort of prayer gesture, “Anyways, we should go.” He said. Ron shook his head. “Oh, come _on_. We never do anything fun. The only stuff we do outside of class is fight people and snakes and dementors, apparently.” He added with a gesture at Harry (who had brilliantly used a patronus charm during their last match when Pansy and her goons tried to trick him into thinking they were dementors).

“What about Sirius Black?” Hermione asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Teachers will be there.”

“You are so lame,” Ron said, looking truly awed. Draco stared him down. “Fine. Whatever. I’ll go. Just know that _I_ know you probably just want to get chummy with your not-boyfriend again.” He said. He turned back to Hermione who gave a soft smile.

“Sounds fun,” She told him and twisted a strand of hair around her finger, “And I do like Zoe…” She said. Ron shot her a scandalized look, but didn’t comment on her potential new Slytherin friend. Finally, the group turned to Harry.

“Fine,” He sighed without looking at Draco, “Beats this potions essay.” He muttered and Draco paused. 

“...do you need help?” He asked and Harry shook his head, still not looking at him. Whatever. It was fine. He didn’t care. Hermione gave Harry a disapproving look, but didn’t comment as Draco shoved off the dismissal. He was excited. This was exciting. He missed ‘pureblood’ traditions as Ron referred to them. Nobody here really seemed to celebrate them and nobody listened when Draco tried to insist not all of them involved muggle-hating. “You know,” He added to Hermione knowledgeably, “Arthur Pendragon was a descendant from Godric Gryffindor.” He said and she paused to give him a bemused look, “He didn’t have magic though.”

“Really? You’d admit that a very successful king was related to Gryffindor?”

“Well, I can’t really deny it,” Draco told her, “And quite frankly, he was a bit of a tosser without Merlin, who was in Slytherin, so…” He gave a small shrug. Ron shook his head at him in disgust.

* * *

Hermione, predictably, _loved_ Future day. Ron loved it too, but was too much of a prat to admit it. Harry was a little harder to read. Draco debated about checking in with him, but Theo had already rushed over to grab his arms. They were outside near the Great Lake with the teachers dutifully keeping a wary eye on the dementors roaming by. 

“Come on! Let’s dance-” He said and Draco laughed.

“To _that?”_ He asked with a gesture towards the floating instruments roaming about. It was very traditional, old music (though Zoe had gotten ahold of some more non-classical music like the Weird Sisters and sent everyone into a tizzy when it started booming across the grounds...unfortunately she then broke the record). “I’m afraid we didn’t cover that one in my ballroom classes.” He mused and Theo groaned. 

“So _proper,”_ he said and reached over to the table next to them to pluck up a blueberry muffin, “Here. At least eat something.” He said and held it up. Draco blinked. Was he… feeding him? How did he respond to this? He reached up to grab it, but Theo pulled his hand to grab it. “Not so fast.” He said, eyes twinkling mischievously. 

“Don’t you think my pride has suffered enough?” Draco asked and Theo only raised an eyebrow. “...whatever,” he sighed and opened his mouth only for Theo to shove the whole muffin in his mouth. Draco choked. “ _Theodore!”_ He spluttered, but cut himself off by laughing. “You are a bloody menace.” He said. 

“Uh huh,” Theo said and grabbed his hand, “Come on, we can say hi to the giant squid.” He said and moved them a bit farther from the party. Draco wasn’t sure they were allowed to be so close to the edge of the party, but figured if nobody stopped them then it was probably fine. “Hey… I don’t think I ever apologized for you getting you in trouble at the beginning of the year.” He added as they approached the edge of the water. 

“Don’t,” Draco shook his head, “I’m always getting in trouble nowadays. I can hardly blame you. I think my house has finally worn off on me.” He said. Theo laughed. “Thank you… for still talking to me. For getting them to talk to me.” He added with a nod towards some of the other Slytherins who were all loudly trying to explain the purpose of the party of a puzzled Hufflepuff. 

“They wanted to.”

“No, I don’t think they did,” Draco said, jutting his hands in his pockets, “Pansy is pretty persuasive in her hatred.” He said and Theo gave a weak grimace. “You… are probably one of the nicest people I know.” He admitted and Theo smiled slightly.

“Funnily enough, you are one of the easiest people to be nice to.” Theo said. Draco wasn’t sure _anyone_ had made such a proclamation before. He sat there for a moment, looking at him incredulously before Theo laughed again. He opened his mouth - perhaps to say something else - but was silenced by a sudden chilliness. 

...how far did they wander out again?

“Did Potter happen to teach you how to cast a patronus?” Theo breathed out and Draco felt his eyes widen slightly as he shook his head. Shit. Shit, shit, _shit_. “Okay, don’t panic… but we need to run.” He said and pushed Draco’s arm. “Go. Hurry!” He added with a note of panic as they both set off back towards the flickering flames of the party. It was too dark to see where exactly the dementor was coming from, but Draco could certainly feel it. Whispers began to echo in the back of his mind - switching from his parents to his Aunt Bellatrix. 

“PROFESSOR!” He heard Theo yell out and offhandedly, Draco wondered why Lupin didn’t go ahead and try to teach them _all_ a patronus given the circumstances. Yeah, it was advanced, but also… like… it would be useful to have maybe a little working knowledge on how not to get his soul sucked out right about now.

“ _Expecto Patronum!”_

...ah. Right. Draco watched a white light shoot out around them, illuminating a dementor eerily close to his right before sending it hurtling the other way… which was great, but also Draco recognized that voice and it wasn’t a professor who came to the rescue.

“Potter?” Theo asked, a bit breathlessly before looking over his shoulder, “...thanks.” He said as Harry lowered his wand. Draco waited for some sort of response, but Harry was too busy glaring to give a ‘you’re welcome’. Draco was about to ask how the Hell he knew where they were before his wand illuminated an old piece of parchment before flickering out altogether. 

...right. Forget being understanding and patient. Draco was _pissed_.

“Theo, can you give us a second?” He asked as Harry innocently tilted his head. Theo blinked at the suddenness of the request, but didn’t argue as he glanced warily between the two.

“Um, sure.” He said and inched back towards the party. Severus was walking over - probably having seen the patronus. “I’ll tell Snape what happened.” Theo added and with one last weak smile towards Draco, walked away. Draco waited until he was gone to snatch the Marauder's Map out of Harry’s hand.

“What the _Hell?”_ He asked and held it up, “Were you _watching_ me?”

“Why are you upset?” Harry asked with an expression that told Draco he knew _exactly_ why he was upset. “If I hadn’t noticed you two sneaking away I couldn’t have saved you from dementors.” He shrugged. Draco shook his head, gaze tinged with red. 

“You’re spying on me. Over what? The Sirius Black thing? I can have Slytherin friends, Harry. That doesn’t make me a Death Eater.” He hissed and when Harry reached for the map, shoved his arm away. “You’re taking this too personally."

“Come on!” Harry growled and shoved him back, “We both know your views on muggleborns and bloodtraitors haven’t changed all too much. You are more tolerable towards us, but overall?” He asked and gestured back towards Theo, “We all know you would rather be with your kind.” 

“My kind?” Draco repeated and clenched one of his hands into a fist, “What has gotten into you? You’re acting like a psychopath-”

“Funny because you’re the one related to a psychopath!” 

“What happened to not judging people on their families?” Draco yelled back at him, “I’ve learned not to care whether someone’s parents were muggles, but you can hold my upbringing against me? After I’ve clearly seen that it wasn’t right-”

“You’re still hoping your parents might take you back!”

“Yeah, because they’re my _parents!”_ Draco shouted and shook his head, “I don’t have to agree with them to care about them! Not that you would understand.” He spat back venomously. “And you know what? If you’re so convinced I’m the next Sirius Black then go ahead and use your stupid map to spy on me. I have nothing to hide.” He snapped and pushed past him. Before he could walk away, he spun back around. “My parents disowned me because I was sorted here,” he hissed and there was a shameful part of him that acknowledged the tears pricking behind his eyes, threatening to spill over, “Because I wasn’t good enough. Not for them. Not for Slytherin. Maybe not even for Gryffindor.” He said, voice steadily rising as he pointed a finger at Harry’s chest, “I’m sorry for thinking that I might have been good enough for you.”

“Mr. Malfoy.” Severus’ voice broke in suddenly, “What are you and Mr. Potter doing away from-?” He started, but was cut off by Draco taking the map and practically throwing it to him.

“Here. Enjoy the work of whoever the bloody Marauders were.” He spat out. Severus’ eyes widened for a moment as he stared down at the parchment. “I don’t think _he_ should have it anyways.” He added with one last glare at Harry before marching off past a baffled Lupin who was also approaching Harry and Severus.

“Draco?” Hermione asked. Her, Zoe (whose golden attributes were now gone), Ron, and Tristam were all arguing good-naturedly about something or another as he continued to storm away, “Are you alright?” She asked. Tristam paused in waving Sadie over to re-braid his hair to also give Draco a concerned look. 

“Fine. Going to bed.” He answered tersely and shrugged her off. 

“So soon?” Sadie asked as flounced over. She wasn’t wearing robes, but instead some medieval dress that was a dark purple, which matched the flower in her hair. “We haven’t even done the summoning ritual yet-”

“The what?” Hermione asked. Sadie’s eyes flicked towards her with interest. Draco inwardly sighed, watching as she leaned over to smile prettily. 

“I thought you knew everything, Granger.” She purred, twirling a strand of strawberry blonde hair around her finger. Hermione blinked.

“Leave her alone, Sadie.” Zoe sighed, glaring up at where a rain cloud had formed directly over her (and only her). “Before I have Tristam use his banshee powers to-”

“They aren’t ‘banshee powers’, you dentist!” Tristam told her, leaning away from the rain that had started pouring over Zoe’s head, “Don’t call them that-”

“Goodnight.” Draco muttered and turned to head back to the castle. A hand reached out to touch him and immediately he jerked away.

“Sorry!” Neville yelped. Draco hadn’t even noticed he came. Where had he been hiding out? “I didn’t mean to startle you. I just… was wondering if we should head back together? Since you’ve been letting me in and stuff…” 

Oh. Right. Draco could have kicked himself. Neville had been ostracized as of late after losing a list of rapidly changing passwords and it somehow getting into the hands of Sirius Black. Draco honestly felt a little bad for him. Sir Cadogan had been a _nightmare_ with all his password changes and what not. Draco had gotten into a shouting match with the idiot at one point. 

At any rate, McGonagall had banned Neville from future Hogsmeade trips and refused to let him have any passwords, which meant Neville often had to wait for someone else. Quite frankly, Draco found it a little disgraceful.

Listen, he didn’t still buy into the blood purist ideals, but… come _on_. Neville’s family was one of the oldest magical families around. He deserved at least a shred more respect. Draco would even go as far to argue that nobody should have been that cruel to any student. After all, what if Neville really was in danger and couldn’t get into the damn tower? It was nonsense. Some of the other Gryffindors even retaliated by just not letting Neville in at all. 

It was a little funny at first, but Draco ended up becoming his dedicated person to look out for him now. Hermione said it was because he had a good heart (ugh, _please_ ), but Draco also knew that outside of being part of a (slightly disgraced) old wizarding family Neville was… well, Draco suspected he was actually quite skilled in many areas of magic. Or at least he _could_ be when he wasn’t panicking. If the boy ever got more than a shred of confidence, it would be interesting to see how he fared. Draco liked to think he had good judgment in others. After all, he had known Hermione was brilliant enough to allow his friendship and look how that worked out (okay, given the fact he had almost died several times wasn't the best example, but still). 

Most importantly though… Draco _did_ agree to be his friend during their first year of Hogwarts and Draco was many things, but he did pride himself to sticking to his word… most of the time. 

“Yeah,” Draco told him and jerked his head, “Come on. Let’s go.” He said and Neville scrambled after him. “Walk with a bit of dignity, Neville. We’re trying to storm away, not run away.” He scolded. Neville frowned.

“Storm away?” He asked, looking Draco over worriedly, “Are we upset?”

“Very. Scowl at everyone to show it. Actually, you know what? Let’s take out our anger on Sir Cadogan.” He said. Yeah…. Yeah! That sounded like a great idea! Neville stared at him in baffled wonder. “I’m mad at someone and I bet you’re secretly mad at the git for the Sirius Black thing. Let’s yell at him.” He said, pulling Neville’s arm. “Plus, Cadogan was said to be a member of the Round Table. I bet he’s upset he’s missing out on Future day.” He told Neville. 

“Draco-” Neville began and then fell silent. He looked over at where people back at the party were beginning to play some old game while other students began to tell stories of Merlin’s adventures in Camelot. Neville turned back. “Fine. Let’s do it.” He decided. Draco grinned, feeling the pit of anger in his chest subside slightly.

He wasn’t sure… but he could have _sworn_ he felt eyes watching them all the way back to the castle. 

* * *

Things were getting worse. 

As if Draco’s stress levels weren’t high enough, Hagrid lost Buckbeak’s case… and just _guess_ who had been the plaintiff of the whole bloody thing. It was the very same man that Draco caught leaving Dumbledore’s office on the way to charms. Maybe it was the bad blood between him and Harry… or this Sirius Black thing or _something_ , but Draco felt any restraint he once had snap. 

“Hey!” Draco yelled and hurtled himself around the corner, “Don’t you ignore me!” He growled. His father froze. He could sense the change in the atmosphere - from cold and wary to electric with a defensive energy crackling between them. Draco didn’t cringe away from it though. Instead he marched forward, ignoring curious whispers coming from the portraits around them. “What are you doing here?” He asked.

“Excuse me?”

“What are you doing here?” Draco asked again, voice hardening towards the end.

“I don’t know if you’ve been made aware, but a rabid beast attacked a child in this school-”

“And why do you care about that?” Draco asked and really… really he shouldn’t have even bothered. Nothing he said would change anything. Still, it was as if the words had been building inside of him. Straining and fighting to burst out. “You don’t have a child who goes here. Let the Parkinsons fight their own battles.” He said. His father tensed and it was then that Draco felt a new set of eyes digging into his back. He didn’t need to turn around to know who they belonged to. Harry had been trying to talk to him for days now.

“Just because something has disappointed me does not mean I wish to see them harmed.” Lucius finally said after a few beats of silence. Draco jutted out his chin. For some reason, those words hurt more than an outright dismissal.

“You can’t keep doing this,” he said and this time his voice got softer. “You can’t keep coming here to see me and pretend like it is for something else. You can’t keep trying to better the school for me and then keep telling the world I’m disowned. Last year with Dumbledore and now this… it isn’t fair,” he said and swallowed as he looked down at his hands. “I know you, father… and I… I’ve been trying my best to understand your side of things, but the truth of the matter is you had to decide between looking bad and getting rid of me and you chose the latter. I know that you may still care about me and maybe some of this is all for appearances… but it isn’t just appearances for me. Everything I’ve ever known about myself and my life and the world has changed. You should been there,” he said. There was the barest hint of movement that almost made Draco think he had made the man flinch away from him. “And if you can’t then you need to stay gone. Stop getting involved. You owe me that much.”

“I owe you nothing. You are-”

“You don’t know what I am. I don’t even know what I am.” Draco cut him off sharply, “But I’m going to figure it out… and for the record, I may not be proud of everything I’ve done, but know that when I figure it all out I’m going to be proud of what I will do. Can you say the same?” He asked. His father didn’t answer. Though, for a moment, Draco could have sworn he saw a hint of softness among the tight features and pursed lips. “I have enough adversaries in my life. I won’t tolerate you as one of them. Andromeda is my guardian. She will speak to the school if there is an issue. If you get involved again then know that I lived in your home for many years. There are things that even the ministry's raids wouldn’t be able to find… It would be a shame if they learn about those places. I will _not_ have another Chamber of Secret incident in this castle,” he said coldly. “If your affection is going to be conditional… so will mine.” He said and turned around, shoving Harry out of the way as he went.

“Draco, stop.” His father said and the order in his tone had Draco internally cursing as he nearly tripped to keep from walking. Damnit. He shouldn’t have stopped. Giving into the temptation, he turned to look back. His father also seemed to regret the words because he closed his eyes and took a long breath. “You will not see me after this,” he finally said. “It is true that you’re Andromeda’s. Not mine. Not anymore.” 

“That’s your choice.” Draco told him coldly. Lucius looked at him. 

“I know,” he said softly, “What I need you to know is that everything we decided… it wasn’t for appearances, Draco. I do hope one day you can see that.” 

Was this supposed to comfort him in some way? Did they just hate him as a Gryffindor that much? He clenched his jaw. Fine. _Fine_. 

“Goodbye, father.”

The whole telling off felt good for maybe thirty minutes. Then, well, came the self-loathing and pity. He had ditched charms altogether to simply mull over his bad decisions as he finished up his herbology work. Naturally, it was only a few minutes later when a knock sounded. 

“Draco.”

“Hm?”

“Why?”

He glanced up from his work to find Harry staring at him. Draco didn’t see much of what he was doing wrong. He was simply doing his homework. Well, he was doing his homework with Harriet... who had grown to the size of a rather large human leg and was resting around his shoulders like a lovely scarf. Harriet poked her head up and hissed.

“Alright, I might have deserved that,” Harry sighed. Draco gave Harriet a curious look. “She called me some unkind names.” He translated. Draco leaned over to pluck an egg from his bedside and fed it to her.

“Did your map tell you I’d be here?” He muttered and Harry flinched as he drifted over a bit closer to the window Draco was sat by. “If Severus kept it I won’t help you get it back.” He added and Harry bit his lip.

“Lupin took it actually.” He said and Draco paused in writing to stare. “He, um, knew what it was… he was actually quite cross about it. Said if it fell into the hands of Sirius Black that he could have used it to find me.” He explained. Oh. Well. Good for Lupin then. Draco felt a stab of guilt at having not thought of that particular angle himself. “....he also told me about your boggart.” He added softly. 

“He what?”

“I mean, I don’t think he’s going around telling everybody!” Harry tacked on quickly as he sat down. “But… he probably told me because he knew it would make me feel… guilty.” He finally finished with a wince. Draco stared. “That being said, I owe you an apology.”

“Oh, do you now? Glad it only took the knowledge of my greatest, most personal fear for you to feel that way.” Draco muttered and snapped his textbook closed. “Shove off. I’m sure my talk with my father also helped with your pathetic hero-complex-”

“I never thought you would actually betray me like Black did my parents,” Harry cut him off loudly. Draco paused. “I just used that as an excuse to be mad, alright? I was annoyed that you kept spending time with all the Slytherins and… I mean, I know you would rather be with them than us! And I just kind of… turned it into meaning something else because I didn’t want to admit…” he trailed off. Draco waited. “You just spend so much time with them! And their stupid parties and sneaking out with _Theo_ and-”

“What are you on about?”

“I _missed_ you.” Harry grumbled, face flushing a dark shade of red. Draco’s mind froze. “And I've been acting like an idiot and I'm _sorry_. Is that what you want me to say?” He asked without meeting his eyes. Draco blinked a few more times. 

“...no. Gross.” He finally said and Harry turned to give him his patented ‘really?’ look that was often reserved for professors. “Though… I guess it is kind of nice to be missed by _someone_.” He sighed as a bit of an afterthought. Harry frowned.

“Yeah, I didn’t actually think about why your dad kept popping up until I heard you in the corridor,” he admitted, rubbing the side of his arm. “I’m sorry. That really sucks.” He said quietly. Draco only picked at the corner of his herbology textbook.

“I’m sorry for saying you didn’t have parents again.” He responded, “Given all the Sirius Black stuff that may have not been the most thoughtful retaliation.” He added and paused. “...I’m sorry.” He said again. Harry grinned.

“Wow, a _real_ Draco Malfoy apology. I’m honored... Though you don't really need to apologize. This was mostly my fault.” He said and moved a bit closer so he could sit shoulder to shoulder with him. “So, since we’re all made up again-”

“I haven’t forgiven you!” 

“-what _were_ you doing with Theodore Nott alone by the edge of the lake?” Harry finished. “Is that another pureblood tradition?” He asked. Draco pushed him over. “Preparing for the World Cup? You really need to clarify if you're dating or not-”

“I hope Harriet eats you in your sleep. I - you _can’t_ keep doing this,” Draco sighed when Harry hugged him. This was becoming a concerning recurrence. He patted his back awkwardly. “This is only acceptable because I know you didn’t get any hugs as a child. This is clearly a cry for help.” He said blandly. Harry pulled away and flicked him. 

“It is not,” he grumbled, “How do you always smell like mint?” He tacked on a bit randomly. Draco blinked. “I don’t get it. I tried all those fancy soaps you use-”

“You’re the one stealing my soap?!” Draco gasped and Harry paused, “You’re bloody rich! Get your own!” He complained. Harry only laughed. “I could have even bought you some, you monster-”

“Nah, I don’t really want to smell like you.”

“ _Then why did you steal my bloody soap?!”_ Draco shrieked, pushing him. Harry just laughed more before giving him the smallest of apologetic smiles.

"...I'll admit I might have done it to make you mad," he said, rubbing the back of his neck. Draco stared.

"Harriet. Kill him."

"She says she won't because she likes me."

"I'm no parseltongue, but I can tell that isn't true."

"It is."

"Not."

"Is."

"Not."

"Is-"

"I'm not doing this with you again."

* * *

This was the final straw. Draco would be suing the school this time. Three years - _three years_ and he couldn't have one normal semester. First they hired Voldemort, then they let a giant snake petrify people, and now Draco was dealing with a very dramatic fugitive when he should be studying for transfiguration.

“You’re a bloody psychopath!”

“Ron,” Draco frowned, “Come on. That's my cousin.” He said and turned back to the figure in front of him. “Screw you, you bloody psychopath!” He added and the skeleton look-alike blinked.

“So you _are_ Lucius’ son,” He said, looking startled. “In Gryffindor…”

“So you _are_ Walburga’s son,” Draco mimicked back “In Gryffindor _and_ Azkaban… or you should be.” He sneered. Black snorted, looking oddly amused.

“Narcissa.” He said as if Draco’s mother had also somehow appeared in the shack with them, “Well, this is a lovely coincidence.” He murmured. Draco rolled his eyes. “I am sorry to hear you’re related to them though. Very unfortunate.”

“Your face is unfortunate.” Draco shot back, reaching back to make sure Ron was still safely behind him with his injured leg. Black outright laughed. 

“See, Peter? I told you this would be fun.” He said. Right. This man was a whack job. Draco turned to say something to Harry, but surprisingly he wasn't paying attention to Black. He was focused on Harriet hissing lowly with her eyes fixed on where Scabbers was wildly trying to escape Ron’s grasp. 

In the following years down the road, when Harry inevitably gave his retelling of their years at Hogwarts, it would include a lot more details on things Draco didn’t really care to do into detail on. Especially about mundane things like Hermione storming out of divination, Twelawney talking like a possessed person, Buckbeak dying, and their very intense quidditch match against Slytherin. 

There was also the confusing thirty minutes in the Shrieking Shack where Ron got dragged inside the Whomping Willow by a dog, Lupin came by to rescue them and then… didn’t rescue them, and then Severus came inside to also rescue them (though he seemed more concerned with other things than rescuing them). If anyone really wanted the details on _that_ then Harry would inevitably devote endless narration to the whole thing. 

Yeah. No. Draco did not have the _time_. Here are the takeaways:

  1. Sirius Black was an animagus! Presumably unregistered considering nobody else seemed to know that information. Also, he wasn’t the one who betrayed Harry’s parents - some guy named Peter Pettigrew did and his poor cousin was framed. 
  2. Peter Pettigrew? Yeah. That was Scabbers. You know, Ron’s _rat_ that slept in his bed for years. Also an unregistered animagus. Sirius came to Hogwarts to kill Pettigrew - nearly biting Ron’s leg off in the process. Crookshanks was apparently the hero all along. Good for him.
  3. Lupin was a werewolf. Draco wasn’t sure why that was a surprise. Severus had been teasing him about it all year long… except, according to Hermione, that hadn’t been teasing and was more like blackmail and harassment. 
  4. Speaking of his godfather, Severus was clearly going through _something_ with these people. Draco had never seen him like this before. The man was usually annoyed by everything, but this was downright… deep, deep anger. Hatred even. Even Draco paused when he started talking about turning both Lupin and Black over to the dementors.
  5. Oh, yeah. Lupin, Black, Pettigrew, and Potter Sr. were all besties in the school and called themselves ‘the Marauders' like some sort of failed boy band (who _named_ their friend group? Honestly). The reason they were all unregistered anamagi was to chill with Lupin when he was werewolf, which was actually kind of sweet in a very stupid way.
  6. It was a _fucking_ full moon out.



So. Yeah. To sum it up, Draco’s night wasn’t going great. 

“What do I care if I get bitten by a werewolf?” He asked as Sirius (now a giant black dog) put himself between them and Lupin (who Draco felt like just came by to cause more problems, honestly. Harriet could have just told them that Sirius was innocent and he would have believed her), “I’m disowned and a Gryffindor. Bring on the full moons.”

“You and Hermione both really need to work on how to prioritize things.” Ron hissed back.

“ _Expelliarmus!”_ Harry screamed and it was then that Draco noticed Pettigrew. Son of a _bitch_. He wanted to move after him, but he was holding up Ron’s weak side. If he let go then his bitten ankle probably wouldn’t be able to hold him up. “Sirius, he’s gone! Pettigrew transformed!” Harry shouted and the dog perked up, blood oozing from the gash across his snout. He launched forward, sprinting after the rat so they were alone with an unconscious Severus (look, he hadn't agreed with knocking out his godfather, but even Draco had to admit he was acting more unhinged than even Sirius was).

A whimper followed. 

Draco knew what Harry was going to do a moment before he did it. He looked them over for a moment before sprinting off towards Sirius. Hermione gave a sharp intake.

“Go.” Draco told her, “I’ll take care of Ron. Don’t leave him alone.” He said and Hermione gave a firm nod before sprinting off after him. “Okay… okay, let me see your leg real quick. I can fix it enough to get us back.” He murmured and set Ron down. Ideally, they wouldn’t do this with a werewolf running amok, but he couldn’t think of anyplace safe to keep them. Better to just aim for speed.

“Hermione-”

“She’ll be fine,” Draco told him and looked over his shoulder, “Harry will be too.” He murmured and unwrapped the bandages. “Ah, lovely.” He said and pulled out his wand. 

“You know healing spells?” Ron asked, wincing a bit as Draco prodded as his leg.

“I mean, given our track record I figured it was beneficial to learn a few.” He said and smiled weakly, “Hope you don’t mind being my first patient.” He added and Ron snorted.

“Didn’t you say muggles would just chop off people’s limbs?” He asked and Draco nodded as he murmured a few spells and dug into his pocket. He had been keeping wound-cleaning potions handy for a few weeks now. A good call on his part. 

“Yep. Not as often now. They mainly just cut themselves open… according to Burbage they do tend to heal pretty well though.” He said, pouring the vial on his leg. 

“Well, I am much more comfortable with you than a muggle healer then.” Ron said stoically. Draco snorted. “No offense to them.” He added, “They sound smart and all, but - _ah_.” He hissed, gripping at his thigh when Draco tapped his wand on his shin.

“Just keeping the bones aligned.” He murmured and re-wrapped it. “Okay, I’m going to cast a pain spell, but it just makes it not hurt. It doesn’t heal it so please, _please_ be careful until we get to the hospital wing.” He added. Ron nodded.

"Thanks, Draco," he said, a bit quietly and with more sincerity than usually reserved for him. Draco offered a small smile back, "I'm sorry I kept stealing your soap this year-"

"You too?!" Draco spluttered and Ron shrugged.

"It smells good." Was his only defense... which was better than Harry's but _still_. He shook his head. Next year he was going to have to booby trap his stuff with those two. He turned back to Ron's leg.

“Alright, you thief. On the count of three. One. Two-”

Whatever else he might have said was cut off by Severus suddenly gasping awake. 

“Oh, thank God.” He said and went to his godfather, “Hey. Hi. Are you okay?” He asked and frowned when Severus hit his hands away. “Listen, Pettigrew got away. They all went after him and Lupin is a werewolf-”

“Where is Black?!” He shouted and Draco took a step back. He looked at Ron who seemed just as alarmed by the question, “ _Where is he?”_

“Severus, he isn’t the issue. He’s innocent.” Draco told him. This seemed to enrage him even more as he stumbled up, grabbing his fallen wand with a string of curses. “Severus!”

“Take Weasley back to the castle!”

“What are you doing?” Draco called and grabbed his arm, “Tell me you’re going to help Harry and Hermione and not go after an innocent man.” He said and shook his head. He had been suspicious about Severus’ treatment towards Harry for awhile now, but really the events of this year solidified it. “You wouldn’t. Not over something that happened years ago. James Potter is _dead_. How much more hatred can you still have?” He asked.

“Getting rid of Black will save the other two.” Severus hissed back, “Let me go before the dementors come.” He growled. Draco didn’t really want to leave it at that… but he was right about the dementors… and he couldn’t leave Ron. 

To be continued then. And continued it was. Severus had done exactly what he said he would do. He collected Harry and Hermione and brought them to where Ron and Draco had been waiting in the hospital wing. Black was in custody after Severus spewed some bullshit about them being confounded… with Draco trying to stop them, naturally. Normally, Draco might be pleased that Severus painted him as a hero here, but now…

“Congratulations on the Order of Merlin.” Draco said when Fudge had left. They were outside the ward where the others were speaking to Dumbledore - probably some nonsense as usual. “How _could_ you-”

“Black is still a danger no matter what the technicalities are.” Severus cut him off, seeming all too pleased with the situation. Draco honestly couldn’t believe this. This man had been nothing but fair all his life. Now…

“Do you know what Harry’s life is like outside of this school?” He asked, walking around to face him fully, “How those muggles treat him? They kept him in cupboard for _eleven years._ They put bars on his windows. Starved him. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn they beat him!” He said, voice growing more and more pissed with every word. There was a twitch of surprise in Severus’ lips at that. 

“Dumbledore wouldn’t have-”

“Yeah, well he did!” Draco shouted, “And Sirius - someone who has waited twelve goddamn years to keep the man who killed best friends away from Harry - would have taken him away from that. How is what you did fair?” He asked, “You know, Dumbledore said the only reason Harry survived the Dark Lord’s attack was because Lily Potter loved him so much her magic protected him even in death. You may not like James Potter, but what about her? Did you hate her that much too? To put her child who she _died for_ through _that?”_

“Watch your tone.” Severus said, but something Draco said struck a chord. He could see it. Severus had somehow gone paler - fingers twitching slightly. 

“I spent so much time defending you,” Draco said, shaking his head. “You stood by me in your own way. At times, you are the only one on my side. I… I would have never thought you could do something like this.” He said and looked down. “He’s _innocent_ , Severus. And he’s my blood. Someone in my family isn’t a bloody death eater. All I had was Andromeda and…” He shook his head, “It was nice to hear.” He said and bit his tongue. “I shouldn’t keep you.” He finally muttered, “Have fun at your ceremony.” He said and turned away. Dumbledore exited at the same time.

“Mr. Malfoy,” He greeted brightly, “I believe Miss. Granger is waiting for you presently. Don’t keep her waiting-”

“Could I have a word?” Severus cut in. His eyes were digging holes into the headmaster. “I believe there might have been some miscommunication between you and I.” 

Well, that was something. Shaking his head, Draco walked inside to find Hermione and Harry gathered in the corner with a gold chain between them. Before he could ask what was happening, Hermione grabbed his arm and pulled him over to toss something around his neck. 

The world began to tick.

* * *

Draco was an idiot for forgetting about the time turner. Whatever, it worked out well enough. Though the whole thing actually made Draco realize how dodgy the time turner scenario was. Hermione (while no doubt absolutely brilliant and completely trustworthy) was still a thirteen-year-old and the ministry just.... handed her a powerful device that could alter time… during a year where a supposed murderer was on the loose. 

Honestly, it was a miracle Pettigrew didn’t get the damn thing and do something drastic with it. Draco couldn’t believe there were so many idiots in their government. Either way, he supposed it was lucky they had it. Saved Buckbeak. Saved Sirius. Harry had a nice little moment of knocking out a whole ward of dementors which explained _that_ at least. Draco knew Harry was a little disappointed it hadn’t been his father he had seen earlier, but… well, Sirius was right to say in a way it was. 

“I must say, I was surprised to see you at first, cousin.” Sirius said as he let Draco heal up some of his wounds. “A pleasant one to be sure.” He added and Draco gave a weak smile in return.

“I’ll be sure to tell Andromeda you’re innocent,” he smiled weakly, “She’ll be pleased… My father would also be pleased, but that’s because he said you were… uh, not truly a pureblood at heart and was always bitter you outdid him in the service to the Dark Lord department.” He said. Sirius snorted.

“You remind me of him.” He said and Draco stiffened.

“In a good way,” Sirius tacked on quickly, “He was a horrible, horrible prat. Like, awful. Hated that guy. However, I always appreciated the way he pissed Bellatrix off.” He said. Draco stared blankly. “I don’t know if you know but… _they_ were supposed to get married. However, after one conversation with Narcissa… well, Lucius was ready to topple the entire system to end up with her. They’re horrible… but it was a good love story.” He winked. 

“I didn’t know that,” Draco said and Sirius smiled, “Um,” he started again and glanced over his shoulder to where Harry and Hermione were petting Buckbeak, “I was wondering if I could ask you something.” He said softly. The smile vanished almost immediately to give way to the wariness as he nodded. Draco swallowed. “You were sorted into Gryffindor too. How…? I mean, did your family - were you -?” He gave an annoyed huff. “Were you disowned too?” He asked. 

Sirius blinked. 

“Disowned?” He repeated and gave a very slow now, “Eventually, yes. After I ran away when I was sixteen.” He shrugged. Draco felt the inside of his chest crumble away.

“Oh,” He whispered and went back to trying a hydrating charm so Sirius didn’t pass out when flying. “I see. You must have been… very important to them. Since it took that long, I mean.” He said softly.

“Narcissa disowned you?” Sirius asked and Draco shrugged. It was probably more his father, but he did feel a sense of betrayal at her lack of fight on the matter if he was being completely honest. “Huh,” Sirius mused and tapped Draco’s chin with a grimy finger. Normally, Draco might gasp at being touched by someone so filthy, but he felt too defeated to care much. “They weren’t very nice people, my parents.” He said softly. Draco sighed.

“I know-”

“No, no. Not quite in the same way your parents aren’t nice,” he said and pulled back his tattered robes to show an impressive array of scars, “Most of these didn’t come from the war, but from my mother finding out her son was in Gryffindor.” He said. Draco stared, eyes widening slightly. He knew what scars meant in the wizarding world… if they hadn’t healed by now then those were made with dark magic. “The only reason they kept me was to try to change me into one of them, and when that didn’t work they just wanted to torment me.” He said and let his hand fall away. 

“I - I’m so sorry,” he stuttered out, feeling his stomach sink. It was strange. Reasonably speaking, it made sense… that dark witches and wizards would use dark magic to hurt their wayward children. It was just something Draco had never considered in the realm of possibility before. The idea of his mother or father raising their wand to him… the thought had never even crossed his mind. “That’s horrible.” He managed. Sirius chuckled.

“I’m not looking for sympathy, Draco. Well, not until I’m in front of Fudge anyways. Then I’m expecting sympathy from _everyone_.” He grumbled with a shake of his head, “Twelve bloody years, my arse…” 

“If I’m called in as a witness then I’ll be sure to shed a tear,” Draco promised and Sirius' eyes flicked him over in wry amusement, “Maybe two if you manage to brush out your hair.”

“Do _not_ get started with me on the hair, Draco Malfoy. Do you know how often I turned into a dog to avoid seeing how awful it had gotten?” He asked, running his hand through the mess with a scowl. “It used to be _beautiful_ , you know. Moony said that it was the one true gift God gave me, my hair… well, that and being a smartass.” He mused. 

“Harry’s told me that before. Well, he left out the ‘gift from God’ part, but I’m pretty sure it was implied,” Draco said and then paused, “He actually left out the part about the hair too, but that was also implied.” He shrugged. Sirius actually laughed out loud this time, fully and completely enough that it echoed through the grounds. Hermione gave them a scandalized look before putting a finger to her lips. 

“Sorry,” Sirius murmured and looked back at Draco for a moment, “You’re still bothered.” He noted. Draco wrinkled his nose before giving a frustrated groan and running a hand over his face.

“I just have a lot of questions,” he finally said, “I don’t think I have a lot of time to ask them though. Were you happy that you were sorted into Gryffindor then? I mean, you were raised with pureblood ideals, right? Was it hard to get away from them? How did you learn about muggles? Did you have any muggleborn friends? I just was… kind of hoping we had stuff in common because I don’t really know what I’m doing.” He grumbled, wringing his hands together. Sirius was pretty much all healed (well, not exactly, but Draco had done all he could do), so he knew he should back off and let Harry talk to his godfather, but… he just needed five more minutes.

“I was _thrilled_ when I was sorted into Gryffindor. Surprised, but thrilled,” Sirius answered easily, “The pureblood customs were drilled into me for a while, but I had James. The Potters were another pureblood family that had the complete opposite ideals as mine. I think deep down I always knew I disagreed with my parents, but couldn’t quite find the words to express it. The Potters gave me the words.” He shrugged.

Draco frowned. He had never felt that way… not before Hogwarts at least. What did that mean? That Sirius had something inherent inside of him that led him towards right over wrong? Why didn’t Draco have that?

“Remus and Harry’s mom were how I learned about muggles. Remus is a half-blood and know-it-all. Lily was muggleborn and ended up being a close friend of mine.” He mused, “I’ll admit we weren’t friends until we were a bit older, but James and I used to research muggles all the time in order to figure out how to impress her… which reminds me - don’t trust those muggle books in the library. They are all written by purebloods who don’t know what they’re talking about. That Sherlock Holmes chap is alright though.” He mused. Draco nodded in agreement to that. Maybe that’s why Harry laughed at him last year. If Sherlock Holmes was around when Sirius was still in school he must be _ancient_ now. 

“Ah,” Draco said and bit his lip, “And, um, you didn’t… worry about… you know… not being what people wanted you to be? I mean, your parents sounded awful, but weren’t you worried about messing up and letting you friends down by not being Gryffindor enough or something?” He asked, trying his best to sound casual. Sirius flinched.

Oh, _shit_. Draco realized almost immediately how poorly timed this question was given all the information that was revealed.

“I’ve let everyone I ever loved down,” Sirius told him before Draco could retract the question, “If I had been more Gryffindor then maybe I wouldn’t have switched places with Peter and James and Lily would still be alive. If I had been a bit more involved in my family then maybe my little brother wouldn’t have died serving Voldemort. I got myself locked up so that Remus had to deal with this world alone and with the hatred of ignorant witches and wizards. Harry was left to grow up with muggles and not a single memory of his parents,” he said and shook his head, “If you need advice on that front… perhaps do the opposite of what I say.” He said mirthlessly.

Draco grimaced. Yeah… that really sucked. He reached out and grabbed his arm.

“Well, if it makes you feel any better, you haven’t let me down. It’s nice meeting a relative who was also in Gryffindor and not a mass murderer.” He said. Sirius scoffed and gave a small nod. “Thank you, Sirius.” Draco said as firmly as he could, “If you don’t mind very long letters complaining about your godson and how our education system is a sham then we should keep in touch.” He said. Sirius scoffed.

“...I would _love_ to hear about how your education system is a sham.” He said in such a serious tone that Draco honestly had no idea if it was a sarcastic retort or not… he respected that. Draco nodded and stood up. He wasn’t done badgering Sirius with his endless questions by a longshot, but now was fine. Harriet peaked out from his collar to hiss. Sirius waved back.

“Be safe out there, Padfoot.” Draco said and shook his head. “It’s a ridiculous nickname.” He added under his breath as he walked over to check on Hermione and let Harry have a proper goodbye with his godfather.

“You’ll be hearing from me soon!” Sirius called a few minutes later as he took Buckbeak and launched into the sky. Draco wasn't sure why… But he got the feeling the man was going to be a rather permanent thorn in his backside in years to come.

* * *

Given Sirius’ rather remarkable escape… Severus’ awards were ever so sadly revoked. Draco had expected a temper tantrum about this as well, but strangely enough the man seemed pretty calm about the whole thing. In fact, he mostly seemed pissed at Dumbledore for some reason. 

Whatever. Draco was still mad at him. 

They didn’t end up going to the feast either, mainly to keep Ron company with his wounded leg. Madam Pomfrey even brought them a bunch of servings to have their own small banquet… which ended up being a lot more fun. 

“Could you tell me about bone mending spells?” Draco was asking as he accepted some sliced pears. “Because I would like to avoid another Lockhart incide-” he was telling Madam Pomfrey before cutting himself off. He looked down from his now empty plate to where Harry was eating his pear slices. 

“...you really want to start this?” He asked and Harry bit into a pear.

“I’m not scared.” He said. Draco smiled and picked up a hunk of mashed potatoes from the center of the table. In one, fluid motion he flicked it onto Harry’s face. Ron cackled as Harry froze. 

Then he grabbed some peas and threw at Draco. The rest was probably what one would expect from two thirteen-year-olds. Hermione used a book as a shield before Harry and Draco inevitably teamed up against Ron who was immobile to really dodge anything.

“This is just mean!” He said loudly as Madam Pomprey shrieked in the background. Hermione picked up a pudding and dumped it on Ron's head. “ _You?_ How could you?!” He yelped as the other began laughing hysterically. 

It was a good way to end the year… though… there was maybe one more thing he needed to do before getting back on the train. 

“Hi, professor.” Draco greeted as he stepped into the DADA room. Lupin glanced back at him. He truly did look awful. Draco inwardly sighed. He wished he still had some pull with how this school operated. Lupin, of all people, should be able to stay. However, even outside Slytherin there was a rather potent stigma against werewolves and he was sure more than the Parkinsons complained. 

“Draco,” He greeted and smiled weakly. “What do I owe the pleasure?”

“I have a going away gift for you.” He said, “Don’t think anything of it. It just sucks that you have to leave so I thought I would let you know that you were a pretty okay teacher.” He said and then gave a wary look at the wardrobe. “...open that up.” He said, taking out his wand. 

Lupin raised his brows slightly in surprise before letting his smile grow a bit more.

“Are you sure?” He asked. Draco grimaced. He wasn’t, but that didn’t matter. Lupin seemed to understand because he walked over to flick the lock open. The boggart shuddered for a moment before letting the door swing open. 

...this was probably a mistake. Oh, well. He deserved some appreciation for the effort. There was a moment of silence as the other version of himself stepped out. This time Draco didn’t even give himself the time to look him over as he flicked his wand forward.

“ _Riddikulus.”_

For a worrying moment, he wasn’t sure it worked. He was still there. Then he raised his hand and the other Draco did too. He smiled. It was just a mirror. Lupin walked over to look it over with unconcealed curiosity. 

“I don’t really know what I want to be in the future, but for now… this is fine.” He said, gesturing to himself in the mirror. Lupin didn’t say anything. He just pulled him into a hug, which wasn’t quite appreciated (what was it with all these Gryffindors and hugs?), but Draco found himself hugging back anyways. He supposed he was slowly getting bullied into reciprocating now. 

“Oh,” he added and pulled out a letter from his parchment, “My aunt also offered you a place to stay. You can have my cousin’s old room. She’s an auror so she isn’t always around.” He said and handed the letter over, “That was the backup gift if, um, the boggart thing didn’t work out.” He said. Lupin laughed. 

“Ah, Andromeda. She is a force to be reckoned with, isn’t she?” 

“Yeah, I wasn’t going to say anything, but her offers are more of orders so… I guess I’ll see you soon.” Draco laughed, “That’s good though. Maybe you can see Harry more often. Bring along Padfoot?” He suggested. 

“I think he would like that,” Lupin mused and clasped his arm, “Also, I should congratulate you. I hear winning the Quidditch Cup this year secured another House Championship.” He added, clapping his shoulder as he brushed by. Draco paused. He had almost forgotten… though he wasn’t sure how with Wood’s ecstatic screams from the tower every night. 

Damnit. He couldn’t even blame Dumbledore this time. Though, in all fairness, they should have lost a lot of points for… okay, whatever. This year might have been a fair win. Draco glanced once more at the mirror, taking in the red and gold.

....honestly? For the first time, he didn’t think they looked bad. 

* * *

“VERNON!” Draco called as soon as he stepped off the train, “Where is he? Where’s Vernon?” He asked. At the end of the platform he saw a familiar mustache. “HEY, VERNON!” 

“Draco,” Hermione chided, but it didn’t feel like she was really upset. As it was, Ron, Fred, and George had eagerly joined in his tradition and rushed up to meet a downright shaking Vernon Dursley. Whether he was trembling from fear or rage was unclear. Draco counted it as a win either way. 

“How’s Marge doing?” Draco asked him and turned to where Andromeda was standing, “Hello. We’ve won the house cup again and I met a murderer.” He said and leaned in, “Sirius Black is innocent.”

There was a long pause.

“...I cannot tell if you’re joking.” She finally said. Draco pouted. “I did receive a rather lengthy letter about you chasing after a werewolf and Sirius Black from McGonagall however. Severus has promised me the details.” She told him.

Ah… damnit. That would not end well for him.

“ _I_ could give you the details-”

“Oh, but you’re going to be so very busy doing chores,” Andromeda told him, patting the side of his cheek, “Did you think I was joking in that howler?”

Ugh. Whatever. He sighed. Maybe after she got a full briefing on what really happened with Sirius she would change her tune… or it would be much, much worse. There was really no telling. Andromeda seemed like the only reasonable adult here, but maybe she’d take a page out of Dumbledore's book.

“Can I at least go to the Quidditch World Cup with Theo?” He asked and immediately regretted it. Fred appeared and swooned.

“Oh, _Theo_!”

“Such a dashing young man!” George cried from where he was still pestering Vernon. “Vernon, what do you think of Theo?”

“Is he your boyfriend or not?!” Harry asked, throwing up his hands as Hermione patted his shoulder in sympathy. Draco closed his eyes.

“No punishment you can come up for me is worse than this.” He whispered. Andromeda scoffed. 

“Is that a challenge?” She asked and looked around, “WHICH ONE OF YOU IS THEODORE NOTT?”

“No! No, no, no - point taken. Let’s go. Let’s go now.” Draco yelped, “I will clean everything in the house. In fact, I will even go and mend all of Remus’ clothes from this year. Stop this.” He said and turned, “BYE VERNON! MY PARENTS STILL HATE MUGGLES, BUT I’LL KEEP YOU UPDATED!” He said and grabbed his trunk, “Oh, muggle studies was actually really interesting this year-” He added to Andromeda in order to change the subject.

“You thought so?” Ted asked, appearing from seemingly nowhere so that Draco jumped, “Good! I thought we could go to a football match this summer to give you the real muggle experience. You do know about football, right?”

“It’s foot quidditch.” Draco said solemnly and Ted paused before giving a sort of ‘close enough’ shrug. “Dean Thomas likes it a lot… he says there are other muggle sports too, but they’re not as fun.” He explained. Ted brightened. 

“Yes! There’s cricket and track and-”

Draco might regret showing any interest in muggles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To give you a good visual of Draco getting off the train...[this clip of Tom Holland asking "Where is he? Where is my husband?" is the same vibe lmao](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot3RiiE72Lo)
> 
> I hope you guys liked Future day. I like to think Merlin (from Merlin) would deadass create a whole wizarding holiday so that when Arthur rose from the dead there would be a bunch of sorcerers there to greet him lmao. It just feels like such a petty move on his part "Hey, you didn't legalize magic so I made a holiday where a bunch of sorcerers party hard in your name" 
> 
> Anywho.
> 
> We won't be seeing Lucius for awhile. Thank God. That guy. Even Draco needs a break from him.
> 
> Lastly, my girl Zoe is here. She is basically a conglomeration of my different HP headcanons lol. I love the idea that potions can have effects on unborn children and that they can be permanent traits that are passed on. Like, I have a theory that being a metamorphmagus was originally a side-effect of someone drinking polyjuice potion while pregnant and now it is just part of the gene pool type thing. 
> 
> Lastly, idk how clear I made it in the chapter, but Zoe is 100% trans. It won't be too relevant for much other than Hermione getting to learn more about sexuality/gender in the wizarding world (which might not even be included in my final edits for future chapters, idk). I haven't touched too much on my hcs there bc they'll only be briefly mentioned in this fic, but I totally think there are basically two types of purebloods - the ones like Malfoys, Blacks, etc... who do the whole 'ensure the bloodline' thing so they are kinda annoyed by gender/sexuality fluidity bc it can make it harder for them to have kids (tho not impossible necessarily bc... magic). THEN there are purebloods like the Potters, Weasleys, Lovegoods, etc... who are just like 'ya love is love' type vibe. HOWEVER there's actually an overlap in the Slytherin house bc due to misinformation and propaganda BOTH don't like muggles/muggleborns. The former because of their 'filthy blood' and the second because muggles are made out to be notoriously homophobic/transphobic.
> 
> idk. I know I make everything complicated lol. I just like the idea of wizards being wary of muggles due to cultural differences and not just blood purity stuff. It makes sense in my mind and gives Slytherins (and other purebloods) a bit more depth, difference, and complexity rather than just saying they're all evil. I feel like they tried to do something similar in the Fantastic Beasts series, but that didn't quite resonate with me as much... I think it's bc I feel like weapons of mass destruction could be easily countered by magic? Ugh. It's all so interesting and the world building potential feels so endless. 
> 
> This became more of me spilling off all my HP theories lmao. Sorry about that. Yes. Zoe. She will be popping in and out occasionally with her good/bad luck nonsense as a running gag. I'm thinking of adding a scene to year 4 where we meet her brother and see exactly what happens when they interact. As always, if anybody trans sees something wrong with how I'm writing Zoe lmk. I honestly think that one scene is as blatant as I'll be about it bc 1) she's a minor character and 2) there's no real reason to bring it up again so idk why I would lol. I figured I would confirm it here in case anyone was confused and also to spite JKR. 
> 
> This a/n got so long. I'm sorry. Year 4 is next week! This is the last two-chapter years. Now we're moving up to 3 per a year! Yay!


	7. Year Four (In Which Draco Actively Protests a Tournament)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me: ...  
> My Government: ....  
> Me: ...  
> My Government: ....we think you committed fraud. 
> 
> lol so my week could be a smidge better. Tbh I know it's 100% that someone misread something and I just gotta call and clear it up, but my GOD that is such a scary letter to open. It took me a solid ten minutes to stop panicking and remember that I did not, in fact, commit fraud. Hopefully by the time I actually post this chapter the whole thing will be resolved (btw it looks like it did get resolved - always question the government before handing over money, kids)

Despite being placed in Gryffindor, Draco liked to think he still had retained Slytherin qualities as he got older. He was smart. Cunning to a degree that it almost always got him and his idiot (no, not you Hermione) friends out of trouble. Ambitious and most importantly _loyal_.

It was probably the absence of cunning and addition of ambition and loyalty that led to this situation.

“ _Draco Lucius Malfoy._ ”

He regretted _nothing_.

“Oh my God,” Ron was wheezing. He looked a bit like a lobster, his face bright red from laughter as Fred clapped him on the back, smirking at George who gave Draco a thumbs up. Draco pouted back, trying to appear as pathetic as possible in front of Molly Weasley.

“I cannot believe-” She choked out, the shock of her words rendering her silent. She pinched the bridge of her nose. As expected, picking Harry up from the Dursleys had been a nightmare. Dudley had been tricked into eating a handful of cursed candy (Draco had to admit, that was genius on the twins’ part) and Arthur had destroyed their living room. Nevertheless, the Weasleys didn’t have all the fun. Draco had gloriously socked Vernon Dursley in the face.

Listen, him and Vernon were still friends. Draco just worried that after all his cordial greetings that Vernon might be getting too comfortable around him. Maybe he would get the man something from Honeydukes for when he got off the train… Just to mess with him. 

“I just don’t… _Why_?” Molly asked and Draco looked past her to where Harry was sitting. He looked torn between laughing and crying. Draco wasn’t sure if that was a good thing.

“Well, I couldn’t jinx him because I’m not allowed to use magic outside of school-”

“Draco.”

“They’re horrible to him!” Draco sighed, “They put bars on his window. And how many letters have we gotten asking for food because they _starve_ him? And make him do all the housework like a slave?” He demanded. Molly’s face dropped a little at that, the anger evaporating as quick as it came.

“Sweetheart, you’re right but that doesn’t mean you can punch people.” She told him “They very well might take it out of him next summer.”

“I’ll stop by and punch him again.” Draco told her stubbornly. He had grown to respect Molly Weasley tremendously. He even sometimes wore those sweaters she made as a sign of wary acceptance... Molly must have caught onto his feelings though because she switched to making him scarves, which, admittedly, he did like a lot better. Not to mention his aunt and her were practically glued at the hip these days – still. He would not let her win this.

“Hey now. We’ll help,” George spoke up, “We can take shifts. Each day will be traded off on who gets to punch a Dursley if they are mean to Harry!” He beamed, “I call Mondays.”

“Fine. But I get Wednesdays.” Fred bargained, “Hermione will probably want Tuesdays-”

“I’m getting Fridays!” Ron called, “Draco, are you good for Thursdays?”

“Since Sirius is the godfather he can have the weekends.” Fred added and Mrs. Weasley slammed her hand down.

“ _Enough_. All of you.” She glowered, "I shouldn’t have to explain why punching people is wrong. It’s reckless.” She snapped and Draco almost laughed. Reckless. What was he? A Gryf –

Oh. _Oh_.

Ouch. He kind of walked himself right into that one.

Sighing, Draco let Molly and the twins continue arguing so he could actually see how his friends were doing. Harriet peeked out of his collar to hiss. Hermione waved at the snake. 

“Harriet.” Harry greeted coolly. They exchanged some hissing back and forth before Harry wrinkled his nose. “You’re still a joy to be around, I see.”

“What did she say?” Draco asked curiously and Harry rolled his eyes.

“Nothing worth repeating,” He grumbled and the snake’s head shot up with a look of fury. “Oh, shove off. You don’t even have legs.” He said. Harriet retaliated by slithering down Draco’s sleeve to curl around his arm, turning a dim sort of yellow color. He glanced down and frowned.

“...you hurt her feelings.”

“Good.”

“ _Apologize,”_ Draco demanded, edging forward to kick him in the shins. Harry spluttered. “You’re just jealous because she’s smarter than you. Take it back.” He said and reached out to kick him again. Ron peered in.

“What’s happening?”

“Harry is being a git to Harriet and brought up the fact she doesn’t have legs,” Draco said. Harriet poked her head out to look at Ron before retreating again. “He’s really gotten rude, hasn’t he? I’m so sorry.” He sighed, patting the top of her head. Draco didn’t go around saying Hedwig didn’t have a hands, did he? It was just plain mean. Ron snorted as he jumped over a few wayward trunks to join them.

“What are you even doing here?” Harry asked lightly, “I thought you were going to the World Cup with Theo?” He asked and Ron pretended to swoon. Hermione, being an angel, gave the gingerbread a stern look of disapproval. 

“Andromeda wanted to visit. I also wanted to say hi, but I’m regretting it now.” He sniffed. As if summoned, Andromeda swept into the room. Draco bit back a smile. He loathed to point it out, but his aunt had still somehow retained pieces of her old lifestyle despite having lost most of her money after marrying Ted. Like, she refused to hire any help (Draco actually agreed with that since Hermione might actually kill him if he ever owned a house elf again) or spoil Draco too much, but she most certainly didn’t shy away from expensive things. He had no idea how she did it and she refused to tell him. Instead she preferred to just dramatically enter rooms with robes she most certainly shouldn’t be able to afford. 

“Molly said you punched a muggle,” She greeted and narrowed her eyes, “I’m assuming it was one of the Dursleys, but thought I should check.” She said and walked over to hug Harry. “...it was your uncle, right?” She asked him. When Harry nodded, she turned her eyes onto Draco. “Alright, what kind of broom do you want? A Firebolt I’m guessing?” 

_"Andromeda!”_

“I’m kidding, Molly!” She called over her shoulder and leaned in, “I’m not kidding. I’ll send it before classes begin.” She winked. Draco shook his head.

“How can you _afford_ this? You made me sell half my robes-”

“Oh, well, that wasn’t so much of an issue of money, darling. I just knew those robes came from Twilfitt and Tatting’s and they are just so horrible over there. That wretch of a woman wouldn’t even let Ted into the building-”

“Andromeda!” Draco said, a bit scandalized by the reveal. “We need dress robes this year and I don’t have any!” He said, throwing up his hands. “It isn’t like I’m shopping there now.” 

“I know, but I liked seeing Priscilla Parkinson’s face when I sold them to Mundungus Fletcher for a galleon.” She mused. Draco closed his eyes. He feared to think of how much his mother originally paid for those robes. “Anyways, I already ordered you new dress robes. They’re much nicer. It’s where I got mine from!” She added brightly, gesturing to her own, silk robes. Draco considered. Well. He supposed Andromeda _did_ have taste at the very least.

“Yeah, why do we need dress robes again?” Ron asked and Andromeda smiled brightly. 

“Let’s just say you won’t be the ones causing trouble this year,” She said and the smile slipped off her face suddenly as she fixed them all with a firm glare. “....right?” She tacked on. Draco nodded quickly. “Don’t look at me all innocent,” she grumbled, “Nymphadora told me that you keep sending Harriet to scare her.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. I thought Dora liked snakes,” he said with a shrug, “If she doesn’t then that’s news to me.” He told her. Harriet popped again, turning a bright pink color at Nymphadora's name. “See? Harriet loves her!” Draco added with a laugh. Andromeda rolled her eyes. 

“When is Theo coming?” She asked, accepting the fact that Draco would continue to torture her daughter. 

Wait. What?

“Um, I’m meeting him there, Andromeda.” Draco said slowly as Hermione perked up slightly. Perhaps she sensed that Draco wanted to keep the pair as far away as humanly possible. 

“I don’t get to meet him?” Andromeda frowned, and threw up her hands, “I wore my new robes for _nothing!_ Why are you hiding your boyfriend from me?”

“I - Andromeda!” He complained as Ron gasped in delight.

“Boyfriend?” Harry repeated, “You didn’t mention that in your letters. We’re allowed to use that word now?” He asked, lips pursing ever so slightly. Draco figured that was the muggle upbringing. Hermione said not all muggles were opposed to two people of the same gender dating, but those Dursleys… were probably not part of that group. 

It was _Harry_ though. The guy had a lot of emotions, but hate wasn’t one of them. 

Still, he didn’t want to discuss his love life with anybody in this room. He turned away. Nope. Not today.

“Wait,” Ron’s voice followed him, “I’m actually not sure I like this. Do we like Theo? Hermione, do we like him? I haven’t really talked to him that much. Andromeda, I think you should have a chat with the boy-”

Whatever. He was going to hang out with Molly instead.

* * *

“Do it. Do it. You’re a Gryffindor. Where’s your Gryffindor pride?” Theo asked, prodding Draco’s arm. Draco snorted, “Just pick a team, Malfoy.” He said.

“It’s _common_ to cheer for a side. Just watch the game.” He said and Theo groaned.

“No offense, but _you’re_ common,” Theo said and brought a bright green flag. “Personally, I am cheering for the Irish.” He said solemnly and handed Draco a red flag, “So you’re going to be a Bulgaria fan tonight.” He told him. Draco rolled his eyes, but accepted the merchandise.

“Why the Irish?”

“Because they’re winning right now.” Theo said solemnly. He laughed. If nothing else, Theo was fun to be around. “Also, I’m sorry about the seats.” He added, Draco frowned.

“What? Why? They’re amazing.” He said, gesturing to the full view they had of the field. He was pretty sure if he reached out he could snag one of the players. Theo gave a low laugh and pointed above them. Draco followed his finger before sighing. “Oh. That. Well, I can’t blame you for my friends being idiots.” He said before flicking off where Ron was currently using his binoculars to look down at them.

“KEEP IT RESPECTABLE DOWN THERE, YOU TWO!” He yelled over the screams and cheering. Harry paused in watching Krum dotingly to wave down at them. 

“I had no idea Weasley was so protective.” Theo commented idly before waving back. Draco sighed.

“He’s just using me as practice for when Ginny starts dating.” He grumbled. It possibly also had to do with the fact he was the first of their group to start dating and Ron being… well, _Ron_ had no idea how to deal with that. Theo didn’t seem to mind as he grinned up at the Weasleys.

“...I’m going to tell him I’m recruiting you as a Death Eater.” He said. Draco looked at him, trying to keep his lips from twitching in amusement. “He likes Tristam, right? I’m going to have him and Zoe say that I’m trying to convert you back to traditional pureblood ways.” He said solemnly. 

“I don’t mind you torturing him, but please don’t make it so he’s bothering me all the time.” He told him. Theo snorted and brought out a Bulgarian scarf from seemingly nowhere to wrap around Draco’s neck. “Wha-?” 

“You looked cold.” Theo informed him and paused to yell out a couple of cleverly placed insults at the ref’s call. “Hey, I know a good way to get him to stop watching us.” He said when he was done. Draco hummed, leaning a bit forward to see the Irish score yet _another_ goal. 

“Maybe give Bulgaria a few decent chasers so this game is actually interesting enough to watch?” He asked. Theo tugged at his scarf impatiently. “What? Do you want this bac-?” He started, but was cut off by Theo leaning forward.

...huh. Okay. Well. This was how his day was going to go then. Draco found himself frozen for a moment - completely caught off guard. Then his senses caught up to him. Only, his senses appeared to have varying opinions on how to react. Some were freaking out because they were _in public_ and you don’t do this sort of thing _in public_! It was horribly crass and his poor mother would have told him that it was the first step to a life of prostitution. 

However, his other senses were kind of curious on how this was going to play out. Theo’s lips were impossible soft… especially considering all the nonsense they spilled. He also wasn’t sure what to really do. He got the feeling he shouldn’t just _sit_ there so he pressed back, a little uncertain if he was going this right at all. Theo pulled away.

“There.” He said, looking pleased with himself. Draco blinked a few times. “Or… sorry?” He suddenly asked, eyes widening slightly. “I didn’t mean to-”

“No!” Draco yelped before Theo could somehow take it back. “I just… I’ve never…” He spluttered, face growing more heated by the second. “I’ve never done that before.” He finally spewed out quickly. Theo nodded.

“Me either.” He said and then fidgeted slightly. “Um… well, I don’t know how you feel, but I sort of liked it?” He tacked on, a bit quickly. Draco’s felt his previous trepidation melt away at Theo’s unshakeable confidence faltering a bit. He smiled a bit.

“Yeah,” he decided and grabbed his hand. “Me too.” 

“HEY!” Ron’s voice shouted from somewhere above, “WATCH YOURSELF, NOTT! DRACO, GET YOUR ASS UP HERE WITH US!” 

Draco decided it was a good match… After the match was good too. Theo knew where the good food was and it was all too much fun to weave through the tents set up and make up stories about who they belonged to.

“Oh, for _sure_ Popper Buttercup,” Theo was saying when they passed by a rather eclectic set up complete with bits and baubles that might have been ordered from the Quibbler. “He has thirty cats and knows how to juggle. He was in… Ravenclaw.” He decided. Draco clicked his tongue.

“Nah, you just say that because of the Lovegoods. Buttercup is definitely a Hufflepuff.” He said and gestured the tent up and down, “Look at all the yellow.” 

“I’m such a fool. You’re right.”

“At least you’re big enough to admit it,” Draco told him and Theo rolled his eyes, lightly pushing him a bit. He sighed. “I should probably get back soon. Arthur is going to write Andromeda if I don’t check in.” He said. Theo nodded.

“Oh, sure. Who knows what trouble you can get into with a cunning Slytherin such as myself?” He asked. Draco rolled his eyes. He was about to respond when a scream cut them off. “The Irish sound happy,” Theo said, but he frowned when the scream came again. “...shit.” He muttered and pulled Draco’s arm. “Let’s go. Come on.”

“Why? What was that?” Draco asked and Theo yanked his arm.

“Trust me,” Theo said and pulled him back, “I don’t want to find out what would happen if they saw you,” He said and Draco mulled over that sentence before pulling back. “Draco-”

“Are there Death Eaters here?” He asked and looked over his shoulder at where the screaming was getting more persistent. “I need to find Hermione-”

“She’ll be fine. They just came for the muggles.” Theo said and Draco frowned, looking at him for a moment. Theo gave a frustrated sigh. “You know who my father is, Draco!”

“Why didn’t you warn anyone?!”

“Because I wasn’t sure they would actually do anything!” Theo snapped back, “Besides, it’s my dad. Don’t act like you would have said anything. Lucius is probably out there too and I don’t think he would hesitate to prove himself to his friends if they came across you so let’s _go.”_ He said firmly and pulled him away. Draco wanted to argue but found himself coming up short with every argument about to leave his lips. 

“My father wouldn’t hurt me.” He finally managed.

“I’ll take your word for it, but let’s not test that theory,” Theo said, leading him out to the woods. Draco felt a stab of relief when he saw a flash of red hair. Thank God. He took Theo’s arm and rushed over.

“Draco!” Hermione said and hugged him tightly. He returned it as Harry began patting himself down.

“My wand,” he said and looked on the ground around them, “I can’t find it-”

“It’s probably still in the tent,” Ron said and gave Theo a hard look. He didn’t say anything, but Draco could already see the silent accusation in his eyes as the smoke behind them began to rise into a full blown fire. Theo didn’t respond, though Draco could see a hint of regret in his expression.

“Are you okay?” He asked quietly as the others continued deeper into the forest and Theo swallowed.

“I need to turn my father in.” He whispered back, which was truly the last thing he was expecting. “Listen, my brother is graduating next year and I know they’re going to try to get him to join as soon as he does. Maybe if he sees our father hauled off to Azkaban he’d think better of it.” He said and gestured around wildly, “And he wouldn’t go around _torturing_ people.” He added, a bit hysterically under his breath. “You’re right that I should have done it earlier, but…” he trailed off. Yeah. It was his dad. Draco understood.

“What if they find out you’re the one who told?” He asked. Theo shook his head.

“They won’t. I’ll make sure it’s anonymous.” He said and then tugged at his sleeve with a sigh, “What about you?” He asked. Draco shot him a questioning look. “Your dad. Are you going to say anything?” He asked.

Oh. 

“I… I don’t know if he’s actually out there.” Draco said quickly… and he didn’t. Not really. For all he knew, his father didn’t even attend the World Cup. Let alone walking around as a Death Eater. Theo didn’t say anything, but Draco could feel a silent nudge from him. “I don’t have any proof.” He added. There was really no point in accusing anyone when his father could pay himself out without a solid case. 

“Fair enough.” Theo said and it was then that a bright light shot into the sky, illuminating them all in a bright green. Draco jerked his head up to see a skull open its mouth, letting a snake slide out. His skin prickled. He knew that mark. Hermione gasped at the sight of it, backing up slightly as Ron’s eyes went wide. 

Right. Well, at the very least… nothing else could go wrong this year. 

* * *

“ _Harry Potter_.”

Oh, famous last words.

Dumbledore’s yell was greeted with silence. From beside him, Harry was frozen, eyes wide and mouth slightly agape. Whispers began to rise.

“Move, Harry.” Draco whispered. Harry turned to him, giving a little shake of his head. His eyes flickered to all the stares, but Draco nodded, giving him a push to the front of the castle.

“Blimey, how’d he do it?” Someone whispered and Draco spun around to glower at whoever had spoken.

“Obviously he didn’t, you dolt.” He spat back and turned to where Harry was stumbling up towards the goblet. Dumbledore handed him the smoking piece of paper. Harry’s hand trembled when he took it.

He would get out of it, right? He was only fourteen. No way they would make him compete in some stupid death tournament for _glory_ of all things. 

Spoiler Alert: They did. 

Nobody appeared to be thrilled with the outcome either. Not only was Harry chosen as champion, but it was in _addition_ to Cedric Diggory. Draco felt like this was proof enough that Harry didn’t put his name in. After all, if he _had_ just figured out a way to plop his name in then wouldn’t there only be one Hogwarts champion? 

Unfortunately, not everyone was as smart as he was. Now, Draco wouldn’t say he was renowned for his patience. In fact, there were some who might even say he was known for his lack of patience.

And, look, he didn’t care if Harry stole Hufflepuff’s precious glory by overshadowing Diggory. He didn’t care that Ravenclaws were bitter that Harry apparently outwitted them by finding a way to put his name into the cup (and honestly if they truly thought that was the case then Draco doubted they should be in Ravenclaw anyways since Harry was a dumbass). He _definitely_ didn’t care that the Slytherins were being little evil geniuses by using the whole thing to turn the school against Harry. He didn’t care!

What he _did_ care about was being able to study in peace and for Harry to not be so mopey about the whole thing.

Unfortunately, he was getting neither. So yeah. His patience was a little thin.

“If I see it again,” Draco said, jamming his wand right under the stupid sixth-year’s chin, “I’ll make sure you get a firsthand demonstration of Moody’s lecture of unforgivable curses.” He hissed.

There was a pause as the boy shakily unpinned the anti-Potter badge and threw it to the ground before scrambling away. Sighing, Draco knelt down to look at it.

“Honestly,” he muttered, “It’s shoddy work. I could have made much better.” He said. Harry paused in where he had been shuffling uncomfortably to shoot him a betrayed look. “What? I could. It would say ‘Potter Stinks’ with a very tasteful image of you getting punched in the nose or something... then if anyone tried to change the message it would just insult you worse.” He shrugged and threw it over his shoulder.

“You’re a visionary.” Harry mumbled. Shaking his head, Draco walked over and flicked his head. “Hey!”

“Listen, I’ve accepted the fact that you’re my friend-”

“What? It’s been four years, Draco. Have you only recently accepted this?”

“-but sometimes you make that incredibly hard, four-eyes.” Draco continued and crossed his arms over his chest, “You are in a tournament that you could _die_ in and you’re going to pout about people not _liking_ you?” He asked and tilted his head, “So typical for the famous person.” He drawled.

As expected, Harry’s temper immediately rose.

“No! It’s because I _didn’t put my name in-”_

“Who cares?” Draco interrupted with a shake of his head, “You’re in. You’re not getting out of it. As far as I can see, you won’t convince them of the truth. Get over it and focus on staying alive.” He said and for good measure, flicked him again. “Stop making Hermione do all the work. You’re embarrassing yourself.”

Harry spluttered for a moment – looking somewhere between rebuked and angry.

“Easy for you to say.” He finally muttered as he adjusted his bag with a little more force than necessary. Draco tilted his head. “Oh, um.” Harry rectified with a wince upon realizing that Draco had a good amount of experience in the field of being hated for something that was not his fault. So, did Hermione actually, but he figured that would be the next thing to bring up if Harry didn’t stop being a brat. “Sorry.” He finally relented.

“HEY POTTER-”

“Talk to him and I’ll cut your goddamn tongue out of your throat,” Draco snapped at Pansy as she passed, “Yeah. Also, I know all about your fun little trip to St. Mungo’s after an enlarging charm went wrong. Try me.” He spit at her.

“Bloodtraitor.” She hissed and Draco flicked her off as she stormed off.

“What happened to getting over it?” Harry asked. Draco glowered in return.

“ _You_ should get over it. It’s none of your business what I do,” He said and tugged Harry’s arm impatiently. “Come on, if we don’t finish our essays by noon I won’t get to see Theo,” he began, but fell silent when he caught sight of a Durmstrang student walking by with golden hair and eyes. 

“Is that Zoe’s brother?” Harry asked curiously. Draco glanced at him in surprise. He had forgotten that Harry had begun forming Slytherin friendships too. “Um, Zoe isn’t here, right? Didn’t she say that they can’t be around-”

A loud crash silenced him.

“I TOLD YOU TO STAY ON THE WEST SIDE OF THE CASTLE, DAMNIT!” Zoe’s voice screeched and Draco turned to find Zoe getting up out of the puddle she had fallen into. The ground shook for a moment and a few students stumbled away when the water disappeared into a burst of mist.

“This _is_ the West side of the castle!” The Dumstrang student shouted back as he tried to back away. The sky above him was swirling, the sun burning way too brightly as the clouds on Zoe’s side tried to darken - as if hoping to overthrow the other. 

“Zach, West is to the _right!”_ Zoe growled and cursed when her bag broke, sending spilled ink and parchment everywhere. She bent down to pick it up, but a new bag came from seemingly nowhere and hit her in the face. “Seriously?” She asked. From the opposite side of the courtyard, Zach was trying to retreat, but kept getting blocked by Karkaroff appearing to give him some sort of award or random people coming up to give him good news. 

“Part of me finds this funny,” Draco commented as he watched the pair continue in desperation to try and separate, “The other part finds it terrifying.”

“Should we help them?” Harry asked, setting his own bag down. Draco looked at him with a hint of exasperation. He was so bloody _nice_ at times. For no goddamn reason. Bewildering.

“What can we do?” He asked. Harry opened his mouth, but at that moment Cedric Diggory came by to help Zoe up, leading her towards the other end of the castle. “Uh, hey - DIGGORY!” Draco warned when he saw another cloud forming above them. A rumble followed before a sharp jolt of lightning crackled down. With a flick of his wand, Cedric sent it back into the sky. 

The students surrounding them clapped.

“That was a pretty impressive deflection,” Draco mused and then turned to see Harry looking at everyone cheering Cedric on helplessly. Oh. “Uh, but, you know, it wasn’t _that_ impressive.” He told him.

“Yes, it was,” Harry grumbled and when Cedric looked over, gave a polite nod of respect, “I bet he’s going to win. Him or maybe Krum.” He said. Draco wouldn’t really count out Fleur either considering he had heard quite a few rumors about her already, but decided it would be best not to say anything.

“As always, I’m open to sabotage, but I know you won’t let me.” He tried instead. Harry turned to give him that patented Potter look of disapproval. “Listen, if Zoe is having an unlucky day during the first task and we get her close enough-”

“We’re not doing that.”

“We could give him a cursed gift. Like, say it was from an admirer wishing him good luck and when he opens it-”

“No, Draco.”

“Do you even want to win?” Draco asked him. He was pretty sure Harry didn’t care either way, honestly. Harry was competitive when the other person started it usually. If Diggory went around touting his inevitable victory then there might be an actual interest in Harry wanting to do well, but given that all his opponents seemed like fairly decent people? Not a chance.

“I don’t know, I just want to get through it without dying or looking like an idiot.”

“You’re going to be fine,” Draco waved him off, “What’s the worse they're going to throw at you? Dementors? A giant snake? Voldemort?” He asked, raising an eyebrow. A hint of a smile touched Harry’s lips, “You have the memory of a goldfish. This competition is going to be nothing if you just _try_.” He added firmly. After all, he couldn’t let him get too cocky.

“Aw, thanks-”

“Try and hug me and I’ll wear one of those pins myself.” He warned. Harry grinned.

“I wasn’t!”

“Uh huh,” Draco grumbled suspiciously, “Just keep your - Montague, I’m surprised they let you out with all of our guests this year,” he cut himself off when he saw the Slytherin eye up Harry, “I thought Hogwarts might at least pretend it had semi-intelligence students.”

“Bold of you to think you would be one of them.”

“Well,” Harry cut in dryly, “Only one of you has managed to blow up your cauldron during potions and I can assure you it has not been him.” He said and then looked Montague up and down distastefully. Montague narrowed his eyes.

“I can’t wait to see _you_ blown up in this tournament, Potter-”

“If it means I can finally stop interacting with you…then me too.” Harry sighed and Draco rolled his eyes, giving Montague one last sneer before dragging him away. 

Would he ever find peace at this school?

* * *

“I don’t like it.” Ron said and Draco sighed. The answer was no, apparently. He would never find peace. Not even for one day. 

“I know you don’t, but I can’t find it within myself to care, Gingerbread.” He muttered and Ron made a face at the much-hated nickname before stabbing his mashed potatoes. “Shouldn’t we be focused on the fact Harry is in a death tournament?”

“Nope.” Harry spoke up from beside Ron “We’re talking about this.”

“Why?”

“That’s what we want to know.” Ron said seriously and Hermione groaned.

“Leave him alone, you two. Theo is nice enough.”

“Hermione. Do you know what this _means_? Draco is going to be actually dating someone, which means he going to be spending all his time with his _boyfriend_ who is going to turn him into an evil git and we’re going have to learn what life is like when we aren’t insulted on a daily basis… Until Nott does something stupid, of course.”

“Are you implying I’m _not_ an evil git now?” Draco frowned “How dare you.”

“You are going to become a low class evil git.” Ron corrected himself and Draco didn’t even grace that with a response as he pointedly stared at the chicken that was in Ron’s grasp. “Shut up.”

“So I’m guessing this has progressed to more than a kiss on the cheek?” Harry jumped in “Rumor has it that you held his hand at the Quidditch Cup. Ron said he saw you-”

“Rumor has it that if you keep talking you are going to get a fist to your face, Potter.” Draco informed him before he could finish, using his fork to gesture with threateningly. “Rumor also has it that you won’t last ten minutes in this tournament so _maybe_ we should focus on how to keep you alive.” He added. Draco regretted his pep-talk now. Harry should be more concerned with this tournament thing. 

“Draco’s right,” Hermione agreed calmly and Harry rolled his eyes. They were such an obnoxious shade of green, Harry’s eyes. Draco had always felt infuriated by them since they were the exact shade of green the Slytherins wore. It was as if fate thought he needed a constant reminder of the ‘what ifs’ in his life. They would have been very pretty if Draco didn’t hate them so much.

“We have no way of knowing what the first task is.” He pointed out and Hermione shot Draco the look. Internally, he sighed. He _always_ got the look. The we’re-going-to-have-to-do-all-the-work look.

“So… how does this work?” Ron frowned, staring at the Slytherin table with narrowed eyes. “Do I kick his ass before or after you guys stop dating?”

“Ron.” Draco said calmly, setting down his fork with careful precision so he could intertwine his fingers together as he gave a withering gaze, “If you do not drop this, I am going to go through every one of your meager possessions and douse them with a love potion, which will make you fall in love with Professor Sprout.”

Ron sipped his pumpkin juice, only grinning as he met Draco’s eyes.

“Sprout, hm? She is pretty fit.” He said as Harry gagged, “But you’re not going to be dousing anything with love potion because I have a trump card,” He sang and leaned forward with a vicious gleam in his eye “I bet Andromeda doesn’t know about certain aspects of the World Cup with your little boyfriend, does she?” He tsked and Draco froze.

He loved his aunt. He did…But that woman would gush and screech and…dear God. Even _giggle_ if she knew he had his first kiss. It would be days of embarrassing letters full of her insisting he sent her over details of what was happening in between lectures of being responsible and dare he say it – sex.

Not that he planned to have sex yet. He was only fourteen, after all, but Andromeda wouldn’t believe him if he said that. She was under the impression that all teenagers lied constantly, which just wasn’t true. Draco considered himself brutally honest. In fact, he only lied around twenty percent of the time… okay, that was a lie. It was more like eighty. 

To be fair though, he would be more honest if people weren’t annoying when he told them the truth. Like, now for example. He would have lied directly to his friends' faces about him and Theo if they were only just a bit dumber. Then he wouldn’t have to deal with this blackmail. 

“Checkmate.” Ron beamed as he leaned back into his chair. Harry clapped his shoulder in sympathy. He really hoped that git died in this tournament.

“Fine. Let’s negotiate then.” He said and jutted out his chin, “You get _one_ conversation with Theo if you promise to never bring this up again.”

“One conversation and I bring it up a little less.”

“Two conversations and not ever again.”

“Harry and I each get a conversation and I bring it up only a little bit.”

“ _Hermione_ gets a conversation and you bring it up only a little bit.”

“Well, we’re all getting a conversation because I invited Theodore to Hogsmeade with us this weekend.” Hermione said casually as she took a sip of juice, eyes focused on her book. Draco’s mouth dropped as he turned to her in complete _betrayal._

“YES!” Ron shouted, punching the air.

“Hermione!” Draco complained “Seriously? Why would-”

“Because nobody is going to focus on this tournament until this is resolved.” She said, snapping her book shut, “So we’re going to all go have a great time, Ron is going to be an idiot, Harry is going to be super awkward, and I’m going to keep you from killing them both. Then we are going to _finally_ be productive.” She finished. Harry flushed slightly, a protest on his lips, which ended when Ron clapped a hand on his shoulder. Strangely enough, that was all Ron offered before going back to his food. Draco waited for him to try and drag Harry into another scheme, but nothing… Harry gave him a curious look before shrugging it off. Yeah. Ron was probably just tired. 

“Well, that sounds awful,” Draco said and shoved his plate away, “I’m going to talk to the Durmstrang students because they seem much less stressful than you lot.” He informed them. Harry made a face at him. Draco returned it before heading off to introduce himself. He wondered if they were even aware of the house politics at this school… he hoped they weren’t. It would be refreshing to speak to people who his history _wasn’t_ known to.

As it turned out… they weren’t! Yay for him. Even Viktor Krum talked to him which was both exciting and confusing. 

“You… are friends with the book girl?” He asked at one point when Draco was leaving transfiguration. Draco looked around.

“The…? Hello to you too.” He snorted and replayed the sentence in his head. Book girl. “You mean Hermione?” He asked. Viktor nodded. “Yeah, we’re friends… why?” He asked. Viktor opened his mouth for a moment before snapping it back shut.

“She yelled at me,” He said and Draco had to bite back a laugh, “Not in a nasty way! I wanted to touch the, um,” He waved his hand around a moment before giving a sigh, “I don’t know the English word.” He muttered. “She told me not to touch it because it bites.” He said. Draco considered. Maybe he had come across Hagrid’s old textbooks? Not that the context mattered too much.

“I see. Well, I would advise listening to her in the future. She’s the smartest of our year.” He told him carefully. Viktor frowned.

“Ah,” he said, somehow looking disappointed and accepting all at once. “She must like very smart people.”

This was an interesting discussion. Draco wasn’t sure what sort of conversation he had with Hermione, but clearly it made an impression on him. Maybe it was the fact Hermione wouldn’t have asked for his autograph upon first seeing him.

“I wouldn’t say that,” Draco told him, “I mean, she likes _me_ so that’s something, but her other two best friends are morons so…” He shrugged.

“Potter is a moron?”

“Definitely,” Draco said flatly, “I mean, him and Ron have their moments. Ron is actually pretty great at strategizing and Harry is brilliant at defense against the dark arts, but… yeah. Morons. Both of them.” He sighed. Viktor’s lips twitched. “But, you know, Hermione is very interested in international cooperation,” he said slowly. “I bet she would love to learn more about wizarding communities in Bulgaria.” He added.

“Oh?”

“Yeah. If you want to befriend her maybe get a book on Bulgaria and give it to her. She’ll be thrilled.” He said and smiled. Viktor considered for a moment before nodding, “And maybe spend some time in the library.” He added. Viktor nodded again.

“Thank you.” He said solemnly and turned away. Draco watched in wry amusement. He should probably warn Hermione but… well, he was curious on how she would handle this. If anything went wrong he could also just hex the guy. 

Besides, he had other issues at the moment. As expected… Hogsmeade with Theo was a bit of a disaster.

Draco loved his friends. Truly. But they were also terrible. Like. Awful. Horrible.

“Don’t be stressed.” Theo murmured to him as he gave a wry grin. They were just entering the village and nobody had bloody _said_ anything. It was just Ron. Glaring. And Hermione being distracted by whatever she was reading. Harry was just being…Well, Harry.

“I am so sorry for putting you through this.” Draco muttered back and Theo reached down to squeeze his hand. Ron’s eyes narrowed at little, catching the action. As expected, he pursed his lips and turned to Theo.

“Tell us about yourself, Nott.” He declared, breaking the silence. “On a scale of one to Death Eater how zazzed are you about You-Know-Who?” He asked. Draco sighed. Theo let go of Draco’s hand to tap a finger to his upper lip, carefully considering the question.

“…Maybe a six?” He responded lightly. “No, a seven. Definitely a seven…And a half.” He said, winking at Draco. Ron was gaping – words spluttering incoherently until Hermione sighed and closed her book, tucking into her bag.

“He’s messing with you,” She clarified and looked at Theo. “He’s friends with Zoe and Tristam, remember?” She asked. Ron quieted at that. Despite his attempts to hate them, Theo’s friend group had won him over last year… even if Ron hadn’t actually spent much time with Theo himself. “I don’t think I know much about you or your family. Tell us about them.” She requested politely. Theo gave an amused nod – eyes twinkling in such a way that Draco _knew_ he was going to try and piss everyone off. Before the drama could start, he yanked Theo towards a quill shop.

“Let’s go in here!” He declared loudly, “I love quills.”

“Did you know that about him?” Ron asked Theo aggressively, “Did you know he loves quills?”

Harry snorted.

“Ah, yes. Draco Malfoy and his quill obsession. A well-known fact.” He scoffed and opened the door.

“Harry,” Theo said, perhaps seeing a potential ally “Who were you cheering for during the World Cup?” He asked and Draco felt himself relax a little when Harry immediately latched onto the conversation. Even Ron begrudgingly allowed himself to be dragged into the discussion with the absurdity of the match.

The blissful peace was tragically short-lived. As soon as Draco went to buy his quills, Theo had stepped in with an offer to pay – abruptly reminding Ron he was an enemy.

“I’m not sure Draco should be hanging out with your lot,” He grumbled. “You seem like a stuck-up snob to me.”

“ _Ron,”_ Draco complained loudly and threw him a nasty look, “Just because you are tragically single-”

“I am single by _choice,_ thank you. Harry. Tell him I’m single by choice.” Ron said, nudging Harry. Harry turned towards them before fighting to keep a very stern, straight face.

“It’s true.” He told them stoically. Ron nodded, pleased by the answer.

“Okay, well this was fun but Theo and I are going to-” He started but was cut off by a few people whispering, subtle fingers being jabbed in Harry’s direction. Ron’s obnoxious overprotectiveness seemed to redirect for a moment as he glared at them. Strangely enough, it seemed to wither out quickly though. He gave a sigh of annoyance… though Draco wasn’t entirely sure it was directed at whisperers.

“Did you stick your name in that goblet?” Theo asked absently and Draco scowled at him.

“No.” Harry snapped shortly. To his surprise, _Ron_ scoffed. Hermione immediately tensed, perhaps sensing the danger as Harry blinked. A quick flash of pain crossed his features before going carefully blank again when he stuffed his hands in his pockets.

“Well…What do you think the first task is going to be?” Theo asked, obviously missing the very clear indication this was _not_ a good topic of conversation. Harry muttered his lack of knowledge as Hermione immediately launched into her theories she had concocted.

“What’s with you?” Draco asked, abandoning his boyfriend to stand next to Ron as he scowled into a window of another shop – probably scaring the poor cashier.

“I don’t like Theo.”

“I meant with Harry,” Draco rolled his eyes, “You seem…” He trailed off, looking for the right word. Before it could come to him, Ron had already gone off – clearly waiting for someone to have asked.

“Come on. You really think he _didn’t?_ How can someone just sneak someone else’s name in without them knowing? And he didn’t even offer to put our names in!”

“Doesn’t seem like something he would do-”

“He has _enough_ fame. Why can’t he just let someone else in the spotlight?” Ron continued, ignoring Draco. “Bloody ridiculous. Every bloody time-”

“Excuse me?”

That was _such_ a bad time for Harry to have overheard and Draco inwardly groaned. He didn’t want to be in the middle of this. He was used to Hermione and Ron’s bickering. _He_ was used to bickering with Ron and Harry. He wasn’t sure how he was going to handle Harry against Ron. They were _always_ on the same side.

Ron spun around.

“How did you do it?” He asked loudly, silencing Hermione and Theo’s conversation. Harry blinked. “Nevermind, just thought you would let your best friend know.” He growled. Draco bit his lip. Oh boy.

“I _didn’t_ put my name in. I don’t know what happened-”

“Yeah. Sure. Okay.” Ron grumbled.

“You’re being stupid!” Harry shot back, which definitely wasn’t the right thing to say, but Draco wasn’t surprised. They both were just… so rash. About everything. Ron immediately went red, eyes narrowing.

“Yeah. That’s me.” He laughed and shook his head “Sod off.” He growled and spun around to look at Theo. “You too, git.” He added before promptly taking off. Hermione was staring at the sky – looking more frustrated than truly distressed. Harry on the other hand…

“Um…” Draco said. He actually wasn’t sure what to say.

“Bloody _prat_.” Harry hissed before storming off in the other direction. Draco nodded. Alright.

“Just going to throw this out there. Seems like a childish argument.” He offered to nobody. Theo and Hermione had continued talking as if nothing happened. Right. 

How was he the third wheel right now?

* * *

Update: Ron and Harry fighting was officially the worst thing to ever happen to him. Especially since if they weren’t concerned with one another then they both latched onto _him_. Terrible. _Terrible_.

“…didn’t even do it!” Harry hissed as he hit his bezoar with a little more force than necessary. When it didn’t break he hit it again. And again. Draco was pretty sure the entire potions class was staring. Normally, Hermione was Draco’s partner since they were the only ones who could keep up with another, but given that Ron and Harry were at each other’s throats they decided to switch it up. 

Sighing, Draco reached over and put a hand on his wrist, stilling him. He grabbed the bezoar and used his knife to slice it open before emptying the contents into the potion. Harry glowered, dropping his own knife to run his hands through his hair.

“He’ll come around,” he finally said, hoping these were the words he wanted to hear. Harry scoffed and picked up the knife again, “I got it.” Draco said hastily and pulled the weapon from his grasp.

“And where even is Hermione these days?!” He asked, a bit shrilly. “She doesn’t have a time turner again does she?” He asked. Draco inwardly sighed. 

“She’s probably at the library trying to help you with the first task.” He told him coolly. Immediately, Harry went quiet. Draco watched as all the ire left him. Really, the mood swings on this one were insane.

“...oh.” He finally muttered and Draco shook his head. In truth, Hermione was also preoccupied with a visitor in the library, but nevertheless. He stirred the potion again, watching Severus pass by without so much as a second glance.

Things had been… different between him and his godfather. After the blow out last year they both seemed resolute not to apologize to the other though Draco could tell he wasn’t angry anymore. 

Draco wasn’t either, but given that he was right about the whole thing, he wasn’t going to take the plunge and say sorry either. In fact, he was more than happy to feed into the fire. If Severus wanted to be a prick then Draco could be too. 

Sure enough, it only took minutes for Severus to try and berate Neville. 

“Hey, professor,” Draco called, cutting him off, “Is it true that last year you got told off by some blokes on a piece of parchment? Didn’t some guy called Prongs call you an ugly git? Hilarious that he can get the last word in - even in the afterlife.” He said. Severus spun around from Neville’s cauldron.

“Draco,” Harry frowned, looking a bit alarmed at the outburst. 

“Twenty points from Gryffindor.”

“Oh, come now. We both know Dumbledore is going to give us a hundred points when Harry accidentally sneezes and saves us all from Voldemort’s ex-house elf that the school for some reason decided to hire.” He said and the room started buzzing. “You know it’s true - take a hundred points, I don’t even care-”

“Draco, _no-”_

“Shut up!”

“Can’t you three _control_ him?” Parvati asked loudly to where Hermione and Ron were watching him in horror. Harry reached over and grabbed Draco’s hand.

“Detention, Mr. Malfoy,” Severus told him darkly, “And since you asked… a hundred points from Gryffindor will be taken.” He added as the left side of the room groaned. Draco gave a vague gesture as he folded his arms over his chest. Severus sighed. “....if you stop talking for the rest of class I will give you back the hundred points.” He tacked on. 

Interesting. If Draco didn’t know any better he would say that was a peace offering.

“That was… unusually volatile of you.” Harry commented, letting go of his hand.

“I’m not usually volatile?”

“Not like that,” Harry told him, “And not with professors you respect.” He added. 

“Well, I’ve lost respect for him,” Draco said bitterly. Alright. Maybe he lied before. He _was_ still angry with Severus over last year. He felt betrayed over him not rising up to be the person he thought he was. Draco had always looked up to him and… whatever. He was just disappointed. It was like the last real connection to his old life had finally given out. 

Harry bit his lip.

“Can you show me how to cut this again?” He asked, sliding the bezoar towards him. Draco rolled his eyes. He knew Harry was just trying to make him feel better. After all, Draco did love talking about potions.

“I’ve already shown you twice-”

“Draco, be _quiet_ or else he won’t give us the points back!” Lavender Brown hissed and Harry scowled at her until she went back to her own potion. 

Surprisingly, Severus _did_ actually give them a hundred points when class ended. Maybe he really was trying to make amends...Still, Draco had other things to deal with than his temperamental godfather. 

“Are you taking his side? I feel like you’re taking his side.”

Draco wasn’t sure how his life had gone so wrong. If someone would have told that Hogwarts would lead to him becoming peacekeeper to a half-blood and a bloodtraitor with his best friend the mudblood in Gryffindor then he might have just agreed to go to Durmstrang.

“Ronald,” Draco finally said and turned to him fully, “I want you to look me dead in the eyes, okay?” He said. “You’ve known Harry for a while now, hm? Can you tell me a single instance where he sought out attention?” He asked. Ron paused. “Was it when Lockhart used him as a newspaper prop? When that kid stalked him with his camera? Was it when he learned that a supposed serial killer was his godfather?” He asked with a pretend frown.

“…whatever.” Ron grumbled and turned away.

“Keep in mind he was raised with muggles who starve him and put bars on his window. I bet he just feels just _so_ powerful putting others down like that.” Draco said and Ron ran a hand through his hair as he glared at the food in front of him. Harry was sitting with Hermione today. They were apparently taking shifts now. Draco ate with Harry tomorrow. 

He didn’t think he deserved this.

“....can I tell you something?” Ron asked after a couple minutes of silence. Draco hummed, flicking a page of his book as Harriet stole some eggs from the center of the table. “I know what the first task is.”

Draco stopped eating. 

Slowly, he looked up at Ron to stare him down. The other Gryffindor fidgeted, perhaps sensing how goddamn pissed Draco was through his eyes alone.

“It’s just I can’t tell Harry because I’m mad at him, but-”

“I am ten seconds away from hexing you. What the Hell is it?” He asked, voice going low. “And how do you know?” 

Ron sniffed indignantly.

“Well, my brother Charlie in Romania,” he said and then bit his tongue, “And, well, it…” Draco waited. “You can’t tell Harry that I told you!” 

“Fine, whatever, I’ll say I figured it out myself. Just tell me what it is.” Draco said impatiently. Ron grimaced. “That bad?” He asked. Ron gave a meager nod. “Bloody brilliant. As long as it isn’t something stupid like dragons, he’ll be fine.” He sighed. 

Ron stared at him. For the first time since this stupid fight started, Draco saw concern in Ron’s eyes. 

“....oh, you’ve _got_ to be kidding me.”

* * *

There really wasn’t anything like watching someone you care about almost get viciously killed in an arena by a dragon while thousands of people watched – some cheering for Harry and others for the dragon.

Draco had spent most of it with his wand out, tense and ready to intervene. He knew he wasn’t allowed to – he really didn’t care.

“They put up wards to prevent that sort of thing.” Theo informed him, eying Draco with a raised eyebrow and grabbed his free hand in his.

“I know. Hermione and I looked them up, we can disable them.” He said as he narrowed his eyes as fire blasted the arena. The crowd made a loud noise of pleasure and fear. Theo sighed, rubbing gentle circles in his palm, but Draco wasn’t paying attention.

What if he actually died? What if he _actually_ fucking died? Part of him wanted to hiss in frustration. This was awful. And it should be illegal. The fear he felt right now? Illegal. Why wasn’t it illegal to feel this sick? Why were people laughing and clapping? He wanted to hex them until they screamed.

Harry didn’t die. Of course, he didn’t with his stupid broom and scar and Harry Potter style. It didn’t stop him from ditching Theo and hugging him.

Draco still wasn’t really much into physical affection like his three friends seemed to be. While they were typically the ones to hug and ruffle hair and do all that gross stuff, Draco opted for more of the shoving approach (par Hermione). Ron was actually his favorite in this regard since he seemed to always know how much affection Draco could stand and never crossed that line. It was probably a perk to having to learn to read so many wildly different siblings.

That all being said, he could only imagine Harry’s surprise when he was greeted with an armful of Draco.

Underneath the smoke and sweat he smelled like spring… how come he never noticed that before?

“I want to fucking punch you in the throat.” He grumbled and Harry made a choking noise.

“I thought I did well!” He argued, but hugged him back.

“I don’t care. Stop almost dying. Every year. Honestly, can’t they just expel you already?” He muttered, shoving himself away. Theo was frowning at them, a small glare settled on Harry.

“Aw, you were worried about me, Draco?” Harry chuckled, hands still gripping his arms. “I’m flattered.”

“Shut up.” Draco sighed and gave him a quick once over. He didn’t seem terribly injured. Nothing super concerning at least. Sighing again, he released him from the death grip and crossed his arms over his chest. “You better find Ron,” he said, thinking of the last time he had seen the redhead. “ _Please_ end this stupid fight. He’s getting super involved in my life and I’m going to hex myself if it doesn’t stop.”

From beside him Theo made a slight noise of assent. Ever since Harry and Ron’s big argument, the Weasel had been more into harassing Draco about… everything. Especially Theo. 

“I see how it is,” Harry snorted “You really don’t care if I die – you just want Ron off your back.”

“Yes,” Draco nodded eagerly “So _please._ ”

“If you’re saying please who am I to refuse?” Harry told him, eyes softening. Draco smiled. His stomach tightened a little in a weird way that he wasn’t familiar with. It stopped when he felt Theo tug at his sleeve, eyes sending a questioning look at him.

“Yeah, we should go,” he said and pointed a finger at Harry. “Don’t get cocky. You have two more tasks to go and I’m sure you won’t be able to use a broom for both of them.” He warned. Harry held up his golden egg with a promise to be better about figuring out the next task.

Good. Draco had enough to worry about. 

Also, he had more people to yell at.

“You saw that right? The dragon that almost ate your student?” He asked, following McGonagall around her office. He had taken to visiting her daily in order to impress the belief that Harry shouldn’t be allowed to compete. He had also appealed to Dumbledore, Flitwick, Sprout, and a few members of the ministry. They each came back with the same thing, but Draco wasn’t willing to give up.

“Mr. Malfoy, believe me when I say I’m equally as upset about the situation. I’ve tried to undo this, but there is nothing to be done.” She said pressing a finger to her temple. Draco scowled.

“The dragon was the first task. What if the second is something worse?” He asked her and McGonagall closed her eyes. “There has to be something.”

“I will continue looking into it,” she finally sighed. It was what she said every time, but Draco at least believed her. He didn’t so much believe Dumbledore when he said the same.

“You’re really worried about this,” Theo noted when they left McGonagall’s office a few hours later, “Potter survived the killing curse as a baby. He’ll be fine.” He said and grabbed his hand. “Let’s do something fun tonight.” He said. “...unless you have something _else_ planned with Potter.” He added, looking exasperated. There was still a hint of amusement in his expression though that told Draco he didn’t actually mind all too much. 

“It’s been a hard few months for him,” Draco said apologetically, “I mean with Moody showing off the killing curse in class and this tournament and no quidditch-”

“I get it,” Theo cut him off. “Tomorrow then?” He asked and Draco immediately nodded. “Good. Because I heard Beauxbatons is throwing a party and I want to see how lame it is.” He added and leaned over to kiss Draco. He really needed to work on not blushing so easily. His face was red all the way to the quidditch pitch.

“Theo?” Harry asked immediately. He was already on his broom, hovering upside down so that his glasses were slightly askew and hair standing up (or, down?) straight. Or, well, as straight as Harry’s hair ever got. Draco yanked at it as he grabbed his own broom (a Firebolt just as Andromeda promised) and launched into the sky. “What do you two even _do_?” He asked, flipping right side up to fly off after Draco.

“None of your business,” Draco snapped back and then immediately reconsidered, “Tomorrow we’re supposed to go to a Beauxbatons party.” He added before he could fill in the blanks with something else. “Where’s Ron?” He asked, “You two did make up, right?”

Please. God, _please_ let them have made up. Harry flew around him, playfully kicking at him as he passed. 

“Yeah. He’s with Neville.” He said and Draco frowned. Right. At the beginning of the year Moody’s unforgivable curse lesson seemed to have shaken him more than Harry. “He’s helping him with some herbology stuff before Hermione finds them and makes them both join SPEW.” He said and Draco clicked his tongue. Ah, SPEW. He wondered if Viktor had been introduced to Hermione’s most recent political lobbying. The idea of the huge Bulgarian listening to Hermione prattle on about house elf rights made him smile. The next time Draco saw him, he was going to tell him the fastest way to Hermione’s approval was to wear a SPEW badge… Dear God, please let Viktor Krum walk around wearing a SPEW badge. Please. 

“What are you smiling at?” Harry asked suspiciously as he flew upside down again to squint closely at Draco’s face. “I haven’t even fallen off my broom.” He added. Draco scoffed. Though, in fairness, he might smile if Harry fell off his broom… from a reasonable height, of course.

“Just thinking about Rita Skeeter’s Weighing of the Wands article. Very honored to see the eyes that are glistening with the ghosts of your past.” He said and Harry reached out and to mess up his hair. “ _Hey!”_ He complained, slapping his hand away. “Do you know how long it takes me to do that?” He said, trying to slick it back again.

“Long enough that you hog the bathroom most mornings.” Harry told him. “Come on, race you to the other side. Ready… set… Draco!” He complained when Draco shot off. “Stop cheating!”

“I can’t hear you! You’re too far behind!” 

“Hilarious.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yule Ball! Yule Ball! Yule Ball! The second task happens too, but also YULE BALL! idk if you can tell, but I have some exciting things planned for the Yule Ball lol. 
> 
> We also finally have a SMIDGE of Drarry as well (from Draco's end at least). I did mention this was slowburn, right? lol. I do feel a little bad at how some of you seem to be growing attached to Theo... It'll be fine. Probably :D
> 
> ....i say that as someone who has just finished writing a particularly angsty scene, but nobody needs to worry about that right now.


	8. Year Four (In Which Draco asks a Certain Someone to a Ball… as Friends)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I guess I post 2x a week now lol. I really need to stop since I have four chapters left to actually get done, but I don't think you guys mind all that much sooooo here's another one.

Draco wasn’t jealous. He wasn’t. He understood. Oh, he definitely understood. It was fine. Totally fine. Great. 

“You okay, mate?” Ron asked. 

“I’m going to kill him.”

Wonderful…Really. 

“Whoa,” Ron frowned from where he had been setting up chess for the two of them. Hermione glanced up from her book, having been only semi-focused on her readings. Normally, Draco might wonder what was making her drift off, but right now the ire was bubbling too vehemently for him to care. “Who?”

“My git of a boyfriend,” he muttered, crossing his arms. He knew he was pouting, but he had a right to. Ron blinked, turning to where Harry was polishing his broom with slight interest. Even the fire seemed to rise curiously at Draco’s words. “It isn’t his fault,” Draco sighed, and tilted his head back so he could rest it on the back of the chair “But I’m so annoyed.” 

“Draco, I’m sorry.” Hermione said. She knew. Of course she knew. She always knew. Ron looked between them, mouth slightly parted in confusion. He glanced over at Harry, who shrugged. 

“For what? What did he do?” Ron asked. Luckily, Hermione answered.

“Theo asked a girl to the Yule Ball.”

“What?”

“His parents want him to secure an alliance with her family, blah, blah, blah.” Draco grumbled “I don’t even care.”

“Clearly.” Harry noted and Draco shot a dark look at him. 

“Besides, his family has no idea I’m in his life at all.” He mumbled and Hermione reached over to pat his arm. Draco’s pout furthered. “I just… don’t get why,” he finally admitted, “I only… I mean,” he took a long breath. “Theo has pretty much gone against every other norm for his bloodline. I don’t quite understand why he’s following _this_ rule.” He said. 

...there it was. The part that was really bothering him. Ron – being Ron – stood up and puffed out his chest in full Weasley glory. 

“I will kill him,” He decided as if this had been an honor bestowed on him rather than an act of anger. “See you later.” 

“Ron no-” Hermione started and paused. “Bring Harry with you.” 

“Wait.” Draco said sitting up. “Don’t-”

“Okay!” Harry beamed brightly and stood up to join his friend. “Do you know any good hexes?” He asked Ron, moving towards the portrait hole. Draco thought about stopping them, but also knew they wouldn’t make it farther than a few corridors before getting sidetracked so instead he turned to Hermione.

“So I heard you had a famous celebrity join SPEW.” He said and Hermione whacked his shoulder with her book. 

“I _knew_ it was you! Why are you sending Viktor Krum to bother me?” She demanded and Draco held up both hands.

“I didn’t send him! I really think he would have started talking to you either way. I just… gave him some guidance. And come on, tell me it wasn’t _priceless_ to see everyone’s face when he wore one of your badges. How many members do you have now?” He asked. Hermione huffed before muttering something under her breath. “Sorry, what was that?”

“I said _forty_ ,” Hermione grumbled and Draco held up a hand as a sort of ‘so there’ gesture. “Not that it matters because I won’t do his work for him. It’s a waste of time-”

“Do his work? Hermione, he very clearly fancies you.” Draco said and Hermione paused. He had no doubt that this had crossed her mind before, but hearing it out loud must have solidified something because she collapsed back against the couch. “What’s wrong with Krum?”

“Nothing! He’s actually quite lovely,” She admitted and Draco nodded. There you go. “...he’s asked me to the ball.” She added on quietly. Ah, there it was. “I suppose Ron might be pleased given how big of a fan he is… maybe I can get him an autograph or something.” She sighed. 

Draco pursed his lips. Something told him that Ron wouldn’t be quite as thrilled with this turn of events… in fact, it was amazing how ignorant to the whole thing he was being. Draco was pretty sure he hadn’t even noticed Krum wearing Hermione’s pins or the fact that Krum wasn’t the only one who had started noticing how brilliant Hermione was. He supposed he couldn’t fully fault him for it. After all, Hermione didn’t start out being very well liked. 

“He is older,” Draco pointed out, “Is he even allowed to take you to the ball?”

“Yes,” Hermione rolled her eyes, “Because that is _all_ we would be doing.” She said, fixing him with a stern look. Draco shrugged. That wasn’t his business. “Anyways, what are you going to do for your date?” She asked. Draco stared, “I mean, if Theo brings someone you can maybe bring a friend?” She suggested. Draco sat up.

“I can outdo him.”

“What? No-”

“I need to ask someone who would make him _furious_.” 

“Draco, we went two different directions with this.”

“You’re the smartest person I know, Hermione.”

“I’m not taking credit for what’s happening right now.” Hermione told him. “Who would even make Theo upset?” She asked. Draco considered. A good question. In fact, who would upset the vast majority of people? His goal was going to now be pissing off the highest quantity of students - nay, the whole magical community.

Wait. 

…he had the perfect person.

* * *

“Hi,” Draco said and shoved a Durmstrang student out of the way, “I’m Draco and I have a business transaction to discuss with you.” He solemnly. Fleur tilted her head, twisting a string of hair between her fingers before giving a small smile.

“You are a bit young for me,” she said and Draco rolled his eyes. 

“And I also have a boyfriend,” he told her. This seemed to capture her attention as she paused to look at him, “Listen, my boyfriend is a pureblood who is following the tradition of being forced into marriage even though he’s radicalized in every other way. Therefore, he’s asking this toad of a girl to the ball,” He explained. Fleur nodded. “Naturally, I’m annoyed by this and want to also ask someone to the ball to get back at him. I figured you were probably annoyed with all the creepy boys trying to get into your pants so I thought you would be a good person to go with.” He explained.

“I see,” she mused, “Though perhaps I may ask someone myself.” She pointed out. Draco shrugged. He had prepared for that too.

“Yeah, but I bet you don’t want to ask anyone from your school since they would take it seriously and try to follow you around when you get back home.” He pointed out, “Then you’ll get accused of leading men on. Not a good look for a veela descendent if you want to be taken seriously in the future.” He said. Fleur tensed at this - eyes sharpening for a moment before giving a slight tilt of her head. 

“Hm. I can ask anyone from two other schools then.”

“I speak French,” Draco said, bringing out his winning hand. Fleur’s eyes lit up. “It must be annoying not to be able to speak your native language while you’re here. Plus, Rita Skeeter can’t bother us if she can’t understand us.” 

There was a long pause. Fleur’s eyes followed him, drifting between a dark blue and almost violet color before a glimmer of a smile touched her lips.

“Very well,” she decided and tossed shimmering hair over her shoulder, “But you must point out this boyfriend of yours so I can be sure to make him very jealous.”

Draco liked Fleur. 

It was a little awkward to learn that Ron had apparently also asked her a few hours later though.

“What did she say?” Harry asked, fascinated. Draco internally winced.

“I don’t know…” Ron said faintly, “I ran.” He said as Ginny rubbed the side of his arm comfortingly. Harry gave an understanding nod at that. Draco wondered absently who he planned to ask given that he was required to have a partner. 

“Rumor has it she’s already going with someone,” Ginny told him, “She didn’t say who though. Probably waiting to show whoever it is off as a sort of grand reveal.” She added, rolling her eyes. Draco pretended not to be listening as he raised his book a bit higher. It was then he noticed Hermione staring at him. He raised the book even higher. 

“...you didn’t.” She said when Harry finally took Ron out of the room with promises of chocolate.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” 

“Uh huh,” She said and gave a subtle shake of her head. “Well, I’ll see you at the ball.” She told him, snapping her own book closed. Draco shook his head after her. As if she had any room to talk. 

The next few days passed by in a blur. Ron had begged Draco to do something about his robes as the Yule Ball approached while Harry tried and failed to understand girls. 

“I asked Cho Chang.” He said miserably one evening as Draco looked at Ron’s robes with a grimace. He had hoped it would be better without all the lace but… yeah. Still not great. Normally, Draco might tease him and say that this relic might be the most high-valued thing he owned, but… the situation was just too sad. 

“Yeah? What did she say?” Draco asked, tapping his wand against this chin. Maybe he should just buy Ron some new robes. Would Molly be upset by that? He could just say he bewitched the old ones. Nobody would ever know.

“She’s already going with Diggory.” Harry sighed and stared at the ceiling. “Girls are hard.” He said to nobody in particular. Ron gave a muttered agreement.

“No, they aren’t.” Draco said and switched tracks. Alright, new robes for Ron. Green would go with his hair best except Harry was already wearing green so… maybe purple? He wouldn’t go for it. Blue? Maybe...except Hermione’s dress was blue and it was probably best that they didn’t look like they were going together.

...this was going to be difficult.

“Oh, as if you know!” Ron threw back, “You don’t even fancy girls… which is quite lucky to be honest.” He said. Draco clicked his tongue. Maybe… navy blue. Hermione’s dress was light blue so navy would be fine for Ron.

“Is it? I mean, it seemed easy enough to ask a girl. I’m sure you two are just cowards.” He said. Both Harry and Ron froze.

“You asked a girl?! No fair!” Ron yelled as Harry sunk further into his bed to pout. Draco stared.

“Why?” He asked, a little mystified. He wanted to make Theo upset, sure, but seeking out another boy who likes boys and would equally piss Theo off seemed like way too much work. Besides, he didn’t want to give off the wrong message entirely. He wasn’t a _cheater_ , thank-you-very-much.

“Because we don’t even have dates yet!” Ron groaned and flopped on his bed. Draco really wondered how he got stuck with these two as his friends.

“Not every girl here wants to end their night with snogging, you know. Literally just ask someone. Anyone. You two have been playing heroes for three years now. I’m sure you’ve impressed someone.” He said and Harry pouted. 

“I did ask-”

“And you were too late. Otherwise she would have probably said yes. And _you_ ran away after asking Fleur. If you waited around she could have said yes too… well, if she wasn’t already going with someone.” He rectified.

“Yeah, wonder who that lucky bloke is.” Ron said and Draco shook his head.

“The _point_ is that you’re sabotaging yourselves.” He said, “Figure it out tonight or I’m going to stand on top of the Gryffindor table and ask people for you.” He told them as he tossed Ron’s robes on his bed. 

“You wouldn’t.” Harry said. Draco didn’t answer. He was pretty sure they both knew he was a hundred percent would. If not, well, then, they were going to find out by tomorrow morning for sure. Draco wasn’t above assigning people. Really, all he probably had to do was say ‘Harry Potter needs a date’ and the matter would be done and over with. 

After all, both Ron and Harry didn’t look _quite_ as pathetic anymore. Ron had actually filled out a bit more so his height didn’t look so disproportionate… for now, at least. Draco wouldn’t be surprised if he had _another_ growth spurt and made them all feel like bloody woodland creatures. Given that he wasn’t being a prat and tried some basic grooming techniques, Draco might even qualify him as handsome (never to his face, of course).

Harry had also grown a bit. Not nearly as much as he probably should have given that he was regularly starved during the summer, but still. A number of girls had already started sniffing around him… not that Harry had ever noticed. Draco was pretty sure he had never figured out that _beautifully_ written Valentine’s day card in their second year was from Ginny. Draco sighed. Somewhere down the line somebody was going to have to inform Harry that he was attractive because Draco didn’t think he would ever figure it out himself. 

Luckily for him, his threat ended up doing the trick. By the time the ball had come around, they both had dates and Draco had hidden Ron’s old robes and gotten him some new ones with some of the spare money Andromeda sent him. He would probably just say he turned them back later. Honestly, at this point, he had no problem lying to his friend’s face.

“Also, wear your hair back. If you won’t cut it then at least keep it out of your face.” He added over his shoulder to Ron. Harry came out of the bathroom, looking miserable. Over what? It was anyone’s guess. He paused when he looked up at where Draco was tossing his school robes to the side. 

“What?” He asked. Harry blinked a few times.

“Um, nothing.” He said quickly and ran a hand through his hair. “Do you have a potion that can fix this?” He added with a vague gesture to his hair. Draco grinned.

“I thought you would never ask,” he said and reached into his trunk to toss a bottle of Sleekeazy’s hair potion at him. “Here. You can keep the comb.” He added.

“I’m honored.” Harry told him flatly. He looked down at both for a moment before shrugging and dumping some of the potion directly on his head. 

“What are you -? Harry, stop.” Draco said and snatched the potion back, “Give me that.” He added and took the comb too. “How do you not know how to brush your hair?” He sighed and tried to spread out the potion beyond the area the idiot had dumped it all on. In the end he had to force Harry to sit down so he could properly fix it. His hair was actually really soft. Draco would have never guessed.

“Funnily enough, nobody cared how my hair looked in a cupboard.” 

“Your sob story doesn’t work on me,” Draco said, thinking back to his shouting match with Severus. Harry rolled his eyes. 

“Andromeda did a good job on your robes.” He said cautiously. Draco glanced down. He had actually changed the color on his a bit. Originally, when Andromeda sent them over they had been a simple black and white, but upon deciding to enrage everyone at this damn ball, Draco had changed them to a dark red. 

“Thanks,” he said and stuck out his tongue a bit as he worked, “They’re actually a lot more comfortable than the ones I used to wear.”

“You’ve done this before?”

“While you were in a cupboard, I was taking ballroom dance lessons and reciting Greek poetry.” Draco told him. Harry paused to turn around and look at him. “Shut it.” Draco said and shoved his head in front again. “Part of being rich is being able to know rich people things.” He said and gave a small nod at having finally tamed Harry’s hair. It was still curly, but now facing the same direction. “There.” He said and clapped his shoulder. “Now Parvati won’t be so sad to be seen with you.” He said lightly.

“Ha,” Harry told him and got up and glanced in the mirror. “Huh.” He said and tilted his head. “It’ll stay like that?”

“If you don’t touch it.” Draco said with a slight warning in his voice. “I have to go - I’ll see you soon.” He said over his shoulder. He walked over to where Hermione (who looked _brilliant_ ) was getting ready to say a quick goodbye as well before heading towards the massive carriage where the Beauxbatons students were staying. Fleur was, without a doubt, stunning.

“You dress well,” she greeted with a small smile. Draco scoffed and held out his arm, “I also did some research,” she added as she took it and began walking down the hall. “You did not tell me you were disowned.”

Draco stopped walking. Fleur paused, giving him a questioning look.

“I didn’t even think about that,” he told her, slightly horrified. “I don’t mean to put your reputation on the line-”

“My grandmother was a veela,” she pointed out. Draco frowned. Yes? He knew that. “Your parents would call me a half-breed. I do not care for their ways of thinking.” She said and reached forward to squeeze his arm. “And I knew before you asked me. It is part of the reason I said yes.” 

“Well, you could have opened with that,” Draco grumbled, but felt relief fall over him. Fleur rolled her eyes and pulled him along. They were entering the Great Hall now. Upon further reflection… maybe Draco had gotten too cocky. It felt as though every set of eyes were latched on them. There was a sudden jerk as he remembered a similar feeling from being sorted years ago.

“...Draco Malfoy?”

“Just saw him-”

“- yeah, with _Fleur Delacour.”_

“Your classmates whisper a lot,” Fleur noted and gave polite nods to Cedric Diggory and Cho Chang. Viktor and Hermione were also entering, causing a new wave of scandalized whispers to follow. “Oh, she looks _lovely_!” Fleur said when she saw Hermione walking in. Draco smiled as he nodded in agreement, watching her walk in with an air of confidence she didn’t tend to have in these situations. From beside her, Viktor beamed. He looked positively thrilled to have succeeded in getting Hermione to join him. When he caught Draco’s eye he gave a subtle gesture to which Draco couldn’t help but laugh and give him an approving nod in return. 

“Champions!” McGonagall said as she scurried over their way, holding the thistles on her hat in place, “Oh, where is - there you are!” She said when Harry walked in with Parvati (who also looked really pretty). He stumbled a bit, almost as if Parvati was dragging him to the group. “Okay, now are you all ready?” She asked.

“...ready for wha-?” Harry began, but cut himself off when he caught sight of Hermione and Draco both standing within the group of champions. “What?” He asked blankly. Hermione waved excitedly as Krum gave a bemused smile. Draco responded by simply shrugging when Harry met his gaze. 

“The first dance!” McGonagall answered his earlier question, a bit impatiently as she looked them all over. “Get into your places, the ball is about to start.” She said. Draco nodded. He was about to grab Fleur’s hand when he caught sight of Theo gawking with - 

_Pansy?!_

He invited Pansy bloody Parkinson? No. Not Zoe. Not Bridget. Not even Sadie. Not any of the many, _many_ pureblood girls that Slytherin had to offer. Pansy. What the Hell? 

“Draco.” Fleur said, regaining his attention and he quickly grabbed her waist. Theo had said his parents wanted to gain an alliance, but with her family? Really? His fuming broke when the music started, silencing the hall as everyone’s eyes fell onto them.

Hermione was actually pretty graceful. Draco wouldn’t have expected her to be too adept at dancing, but she held her own pretty well. Nothing fancy or anything, but she didn’t look awkward… unlike Harry. Draco was a little worried that one wrong move would send both him and Parvati tumbling to the ground. 

“Which one?” Fleur asked and Draco bit his tongue as they moved. 

“Green eyes, black hair. Don’t look. People know we’re dating, mostly. I think he’s afraid of it getting in the paper and people outside the school finding out though.” Draco sighed. In all honesty, a gay couple wasn’t anything too new to the wizarding world. There was enough magic to make even the lineage thing work in some ways. Theo’s parents might be annoyed that they would have to pour the same amount of time and effort into getting a grandchild the same as if they had a barren girl, but it could be done sometimes. It was even common in other areas of the wizarding world.

Theo with a disowned bloodtraitor though? Yeah… not likely. Though, once again, Draco was a little confused on why Theo _cared_ about their approval when he was over there rebelling and turning his father over to the ministry but… whatever. 

“Oh,” Fleur said, eyes widening, “I… hadn’t realized.” She said slowly. “That’s so awful to be put in that position,” she frowned, “I hadn’t even known he was pureblood.”

“You wouldn’t think it just by looking at him, would you?”

“No, I… well, I suppose technically his mother was a witch, wasn’t she? I never quite got how that worked,” Fleur said and Draco paused. Obviously? Maybe he was translating something wrong. Fleur’s French was (unsurprisingly) quite a bit better than his. “I never heard much about his upbringing either. There are rumors that it was awful though. I don’t know in what way,” Fleur continued to muse, “Maybe you’re being too hard on him.”

“He’s thrown every other tradition out the window!” Draco said and Fleur gave a smile as she spun out, twirling before she placed her hand back on Draco’s shoulder. “Why not this one?”

“He does have a lot on his plate right now,” Fleur said firmly, “This is a stressful year, is it not? With the tournament and all. I would imagine he gets enough attention normally. Now this?” 

“I suppose,” Draco murmured. It was a fair point. Theo, while the younger of the two, did love Winston. Maybe he didn’t want to disgrace him. Plus with all the tournament stuff going on… more people would be critical that his brother wasn’t chosen as a champion. 

Ugh.

“Say something funny.” Fleur said and Draco frowned at her.

“Um, like what? Should I make fun of Harry’s dancing?” He asked a bit offhandedly as they twirled around the other two. Poor Parvati was so very clearly trying to lead them into doing the whole thing properly. Fleur responded by giving a bright laugh, tipping her head back so her hair shimmered down her back. It seemed to echo through the hall like bells. 

“He was nearby. I did say I would make him jealous.” Fleur shrugged. Draco was about to say Theo wasn’t actually that close when she moved the hand on his shoulder to his neck. “Tell me more about your family.” She requested. It was actually a question he had been trained to answer from a pretty early age. The words came to his tongue immediately. 

“My father is a Malfoy and mother a Black. They both-”

“No, no. You’re real family.” Fleur corrected. Draco felt himself get a hint off beat at that, but Fleur saved it by diving into an impromptu dip that had everyone give a small round of applause before spinning out and returning to him. “You know, the good ones.” 

Draco laughed. It wasn’t actually funny, but he just kind of liked the way she put things. Very blunt. 

“Well, my Aunt Andromeda is probably the scariest woman alive…” He began and kept on all through the dance… well, many dances. He didn’t realize it, but they spent a good chunk of the night dancing. Right up until the music stopped for the feast anyways. 

As it turned out, him and Fleur were a better duo than he thought. While obviously beautiful, she was actually pretty polite all things considered. Draco would have thought she would be annoyed by people crawling all over her by now. Harry had mentioned she had annoyed him earlier by being condescending during the beginning of the tournament, but honestly Draco was pretty sure she just was a blunt person. That and English wasn’t her first language. It was hard to be tactful when you were trying to keep up with what you were saying half the time. 

“Do you want to talk to him?” He asked when Roger Davies came by during dinner. Fleur gave a small wince, which was all Draco needed to turn back around and scowl. “Go away. She didn’t come here with you.”

“I was just-”

“I swear to God, I’ll sneak into your dorm and cut off your toes. Go away.” He repeated calmly. Fleur snorted. 

“Thank you.” She said quietly and Draco shrugged. This was a great job for him. Being mean with a noble purpose? Brilliant. “Here, let me get that for you!” She said suddenly and leaned over, picking something off his robes. Interesting. Theo must be nearby. Draco didn’t see him, but trusted Fleur’s expertise on the matter to go along with it. 

Besides them, Hermione and Viktor were also talking - though it wasn’t really a discussion as much as Hermione and Krum both repeating her name with varying degrees of success. 

“Hermy-own.” Viktor said with so much determination that Draco kind of wanted Hermione to relent and say he got it right. On their other side, Cho and Cedric were both eagerly discussing something too low for anyone else to hear. Much to Draco’s horror, Harry was watching with a bit of a wistful look in his eyes. He reached out to kick him under the table before giving a very pointed look at where Parvati was playing absently with her food. 

“Oh. Um. How’s your dinner?” He asked, nearly knocking over a cup in an effort to redirect his attention to his date. Draco was so embarrassed to know him. Fleur leaned over and fixed his collar. 

All in all, it was going pretty good up until the end of the ball. Fleur had gone to help Zoe (who had somehow spilled cider on her robes) just in time for Theo to grab Draco’s arm and pull him to the side. 

“What the Hell?” He greeted. Draco pasted on a fake smile.

“Oh, fancy seeing you here.”

“That’s real mature,” Theo muttered, crossing his arms over his chest. “Fleur Delacour? Really?” He asked. Draco gave a feigned look of bafflement in return. “I _had_ to invite Pansy-”

“Did you?” Draco cut him off. “Pansy? Of all people?”

“That’s who my family wanted me to go with!”

“Why do you _care?”_ Draco hissed back, “I asked you a hundred times and you _still_ won’t give me an answer. You say you hate your family - except Winston, of course - but Winston would let you marry whatever pureblood you want. Don’t tell me he forced the Parkinsons on you. So why? Why her? And why, out of all the pureblood traditions, are you choosing this one to stay loyal to?” He asked, throwing his hands up in the air. “If you could just answer that for me I’d be happy, Theo!”

“You’re already disowned. You don’t understand.” Theo said and Draco knew immediately it was a lie. Whatever the real reason was, it wasn’t disownment. He could tell the second Theo’s eyes flicked away from him. 

“I don’t get what I was supposed to do. Not go with anyone?”

“You chose one of the most infuriating people to go with on purpose! The only person who would upset me more is-” He started and then cut himself off. Draco was actually a little offended. There was someone who would piss him off _more_ than Fleur? Who? “It doesn't matter. I’m going to bed.” He said and stepped away. 

“Theo-”

“And you know what? Here’s the truth: I don’t know if it’s going to actually last with you. My parents find out and I’m done for. I may not always like my family, but I’m not ready to cut off all ties for someone who is going to ditch me in a year or two.” He said. Draco tried to respond, but honestly he felt like someone had filled his brain with hot water. Pained and confused. “If I play along and do this courting thing with Pansy then… At least I have a backup plan! And, for the record, Pansy could have already told my parents about us, but she _didn’t._ ”

“Yeah, because she’s running out of pureblood marriage options, Theo. At this point it’s probably only you or an even worse bloodtraitor.” 

“So, you?” 

“I… Bye, Theo. Have a great night. Sorry I didn’t realize we’re on a clock ticking down before our relationship is doomed.” He snapped out and marched back towards some of the tables set up and plopping down. From behind him, Theo threw up his hands and also stormed away.

What even _was_ this? It wasn’t going to last? Why would he even think that? What had Draco done to even warrant that as a suspicion?

“You seem upset.” 

Draco sighed. Harry. Of course, Harry found him. It was always Harry, wasn’t it? 

“Yes,” he said, looking up “After seeing your God awful dancing I think I immediately went through the five stages of grief.” He told him. A hint of a smile touched Harry’s lips as he shuffled forward. 

“What was I doing wrong?” He asked and gave a mocking attempt to get back into position, “My hand was here and my other hand was here-”

“How _tall_ is this invisible person you’re dancing with?” 

“Here?” Harry asked before lowering his hand to his side almost completely. Draco looked at him. “I need a reasonably sized person - come here.” He said and yanked impatiently at Draco’s arm.

“No.”

“Yes,” Harry informed him solemnly, “It is of utmost importance I learn this now that the dance is over. I foresee there being many balls in my future.” He said and Draco groaned as he was pulled towards him. It was a little surprising how easily Harry had been able to tug him up. For someone who looked so lean, he was surprisingly strong. 

“Wow, you know where to put your hands.” Draco said dryly and Harry rolled his eyes, “You know, somehow you seem ten times less awkward now then you did back there.”

“Very much disagree. I’m not awkward.”

“You are one of the most awkward people I’ve ever - _Harry!”_ He yelped when he was almost immediately tripped by Harry yanking them to the side, “What the Hell are you - ? Stop!” He laughed when they continued to be pulled in a hundred different directions. He was positive this was all a ruse now. Harry was purposely trying to trip him at this point. In the end, he succeeded and Draco used all his strength to bring him down too.

“Was that any better?” Harry laughed. Draco shoved him away, though he was admittedly laughing too. “Come on, didn’t your pureblood upbringing better prepare you for this?” He asked and shoved him back. 

“Funnily enough, the people I practiced with were better dancers than you.”

“Impossible.” 

Draco laughed again, tipping his head back as Harry leaned against him slightly. It was nice. For a moment, they both seemed to forget the immense pressure gnawing at them to make way for full-blown stupidity. A voice cleared their throat.

“Hello,” Fleur said pleasantly with her hands folded politely in front of her. Draco paused. Oh. This was embarrassing. He internally winced as he registered the fact he was rolling around on the ground like a toddler while the person who was _supposed_ to be with remained forgotten. “I am glad to see you two have made up.” She mused. Harry blinked a few times.

“...we were fighting?” He asked and turned to Draco, “This is the third time you’ve done this. _Tell_ me when you’re upset-”

“No!” Draco yelped, face burning red as a sudden realization dawned on him. God, how had he been so _stupid_? No, no, no… “Oh, Fleur, no. I - um, this… Theodore Nott is my boyfriend. Not Harry.” He flushed. Fleur blinked a few times. “Um, the boy in Slytherin who was dancing with the girl frilly, pink robes.” He said. Fleur’s expression cleared. Pansy’s look was… well, it caught your attention to say the least. 

“Oh,” she said and tilted her head, “I see.”

Draco was going to die.

“Well, I believe I am ready to retire for the night,” Fleur continued, seemingly unaware she was playing a rather pivotal role in Draco’s grand demise into pure embarrassment. “Thank you for escorting me. I did enjoy our conversation and you were quite right to say you are a much better dancer than any of these other Hogwarts students.” She mused. Draco answered with a tight smile.

“I had a lot of fun tonight too,” he admitted and went to stand up, “Um, I should walk you back-”

“No, no!” Fleur said, eyes bright as they flicked over between them, “Stay. I wish to speak to my classmates anyways.” She mused and reached over to lean down and kiss his cheek, “Thank you, Draco.” She told him and with that flittered away with her robes rippling in the dim lighting of the Hall. 

A pause followed.

“So,” Harry finally said after a couple of minutes, “We’re dating, huh?”

“I didn’t… Oh my God,” Draco groaned and flopped on his back, “I just said my boyfriend was the one with black hair and green eyes. I didn’t think she would assume it was _you_.” He moaned, throwing an arm over his eyes. All of her questions suddenly made so much more sense. There were quite a bit of books that talked about Harry, but since he was a baby at the time not too much went into detail about who was raising him or even his blood-status. Just that he survived the killing curse. Harry laughed because he was evil. “Shut it. She really thinks my standards are that low?”

“Apparently.” Harry told him brightly. Draco peeked out at him from under his arm. He hadn’t thought about it but… Harry and Theo _did_ look a little similar. A little. Harry’s eyes were a different shade of green and Theo’s hair could be considered more of a very dark brown than black, but… you know what? He wasn’t going to read into this. “Quite frankly, I didn’t realize she knew you had a boyfriend. She seemed to… really like you. A lot.” He said, clicking his tongue a bit in almost annoyance. “You do know she’s seventeen, right?” He added on. Draco looked at him.

“Um, yeah?” He said and lightly kicked his leg, “I don’t even fancy girls, remember?” 

“I don’t know!” Harry said a little defensively, “You can like both, I think. I’m pretty sure that’s a thing.” He said. Draco wasn’t sure what to make of that comment. Not that it mattered because in the distance he could see Ron and Hermione were both red in the face and - ah, no. 

“Ron is being an idiot.” He sighed and Harry followed his gaze with a grimace.

“Did you know? About her and Krum?”

“Eh, I may have helped it along.” Draco said and Harry gave him a scandalized look. “It would have probably happened _anyways,”_ He said and threw up a hand, “He obviously is so taken with her. And she deserves it.” He added with a slight shake of his head. “Gingerbread needs to stop ruining her night.” He added and stood up, offering a hand to Harry. For whatever reason, he flushed as he accepted it… and then looked confused (by what, Draco didn’t know. Probably the decorations). Not that they needed to have gotten up since both Hermione and Ron stormed over to them. Harry practically stumbled back from Hermione the moment he saw her face.

“Where have you been?” Hermione asked and Draco inwardly sighed when he noticed tears pooling at her eyes, “I-”

“Tell her she’s mad!” Ron cut her off, “Krum found the smartest one of us and charmed her to get information on Harry and figure out that bloody egg for the second task-”

“Um,” Draco interjected, “She is _one_ of the smartest-”

“How could you even say that?” Hermione said to Ron, fists clenching by her side. Ron ignored her.

“-though maybe she isn’t the smartest if she can’t see that.” He said and Draco felt the temperature of the room physically drop as soon as the words were out of his mouth. Even the castle knew how badly he had fucked up. 

“He hasn’t asked me a single thing about the tournament or Harry. Not once. I _told_ you this already!” Hermione said, voice shaking. Draco moved a little closer, putting a hand on her arm. “Just go. Just…” She threw up a hand and spun away, marching towards the other end of the hall. Draco looked over. He didn’t really expect Harry to say anything - he _did_ just stop fighting with Ron himself after all - so he decided to take the plunge.

“You know, if you like someone, the goal is generally not to make them feel bad.” 

“Oh yeah?” Ron shot back, “I take it Theo was thrilled with _your_ date then?”

...you know what? That was probably fair. Harry shifted awkwardly before musing his hair, sending the effects of the sleeking potion completely out the window. Ah, well. It at least lasted longer than he had anticipated. 

“Maybe I fucked up too,” Draco shrugged, “Hope that makes you feel better about ruining her night when she did nothing wrong.” He said and for good measure, shook his head and said, “You see everyday how much she gets tormented. You couldn’t just let her have this?”

Ron looked as if somebody had slapped him. 

Leaving him to mull over his own asshassery, Draco went in the same direction Hermione had stormed off in. She wasn’t hard to find. In fact, she was in the very same place she was the very first time Ron had made her cry.

“If a troll attacks us,” he said as he sat down next to her on the still very disgusting bathroom floor, “Let’s just stun it this time.” He said and Hermione gave a slight laugh through her sobs. “Listen, Herm-own-ninny -”

“Don’t make fun of him.” She scolded through the tears, “He’s trying his best.”

“Oh my God, you’re _pathetic.”_ Draco groaned and hugged her. “....I’ll join SPEW if you stop crying.” He said and Hermione looked up at him with a watery smile.

In the end, she cried for another twenty minutes and Draco still somehow ended up joining SPEW.

* * *

The second task was… a little stressful. Harry learned it was an underwater challenge. Great. Wonderful. They would be holding something hostage from him. Unfortunate, but okay. Oh, also, he had to breathe underwater for an hour. 

Not as ideal.

Draco had several ideas on how this could maybe work. Transfiguration maybe? He could turn himself into a fish… but also. He wasn’t sure how he would turn himself back. So maybe not transfiguration. Um, there was, possibly… a charm? Being the slimy, untrustworthy Slytherin he was (...deep down) he decided to use Fleur as a potential resource.

“This is a competition,” She reminded him as he walked with her towards a few of the empty rooms where she was having classes. Apparently, the other schools brought their own teachers along to make sure nobody fell behind in academics over the course of the year. Good for them. Draco kind of doubted Hogwarts would do such a thing considering nobody aside from McGonagall really prioritized academics. “I know you will help the Potter boy if I say.” She scolded and then paused to pull a silver scarf from seemingly nowhere and fit it around his neck. “It’s cold.” She added as an explanation. 

“Oh, come on. He’s only fourteen! You said yourself he’s too young! How are you going to let a poor, innocent child drown?” He asked. Fleur stopped to give him a stern look. “He doesn’t have the vast knowledge of potential charms and spells that you do.” He added.

“You remind me of my sister,” She grumbled and Draco paused. Wasn’t her sister like eight? Wasn’t sure he was thrilled with that. No matter, he had other goals. “No.” She said and tapped his nose.

Evil little French fiend. He groaned, watching her waltz into the classroom. Alright, so… wait. Potions. There had to be a potion that would do the trick, right? Or maybe a potion ingredient? Or -

“Neville!” He called, racing over. He had actually wanted to find Hermione, but she seemed to have vanished. Typical. Neville was a decent bet though. “Hey, hi. It’s me.” He greeted, slightly out of breath. “Underwater plants.”

Neville’s face lit up.

“You want to know about underwater plants?”

Draco shook his head, still out of breath.

“Oh.”

“A plant that could make you breathe underwater.” He clarified, “I’ve been trying to think of potions so if you know any of those-”

“Gillyweed.” Neville said immediately. Draco stared. “I actually just happened to read about-”

“Gillyweed?” He repeated, “How? You use that for love potions and antidotes!” He said, straining to remember if there were any other potions it could be used for. Neville shrugged.

“I don’t know about potions, but if you eat it alone then you grow gills and fins for about an hour.” he said. Draco blinked. “It also would enhance your eyesight underwater.” Neville told him and Draco paused. Wait a second.

“How is it that there’s a plant that can make you see underwater, but not a plant or potion that just makes you _see_.” Draco told him, brows furrowing. Neville blinked. “There are so many wizards with glasses. Moody even has a weird fake eye. Why isn’t there a spell or something to fix it?” He asked. 

“I don’t know,” Neville said slowly, “Honestly, I bet a combination of dittany and knotgrass could work.”

“Knotgrass is used in polyjuice potion,” Draco said, tapping a finger to his lips, “When you transform into someone else you get their eyesight too…” He mused slowly, “You and I will be talking more about this later.” He informed Neville. “Right now I have to go. Thank you, Neville!” He called, sprinting away.

Gillyweed. That… would work. Very nicely. 

Except for the fact he wasn’t sure how to get any. Honestly, did he have to do everything? Where even was Harry?

Well… actually. He did know how to get some.

“Can I grab some ingredients?” He asked. It had been several months since Draco last visited Severus so he wasn’t sure how this was going to go… but he had to try. The two were on tentatively civil terms again. Severus had been significantly easier on all the Gryffindors since Draco’s last outburst so he was trying to return it with being polite.

“For what?”

“A potion.”

“What potion?”

“....a burning antidote.” He lied smoothly and Severus glanced up from his work with a frown.

“That’s advanced,” he noted slowly, “I’m guessing you already know most of those ingredients aren’t available to students?” He asked. Draco offered a coy smile in return. “What on Earth do you need a burning antidote for?”

“I’ve decided I want to be a healer,” he said, realizing as the words left his mouth that… huh. That might be true, actually. For a later time, “I figured I could get a head start on learning more specific spells and potions.” He explained. 

For whatever reason, this seemed to pain Severus. He clenched his jaw, fingers tapping on the desk.

“Are you alright?”

“Yes,” he snapped and Draco jumped, “Yes, I… was thinking of a friend of mine who was a healer.” He muttered. Draco curiously nodded. Severus never mentioned many friends. He wasn’t even sure the man knew any healers. He wondered who it could be. “You are ending up infuriatingly similar to her in some ways.” He grumbled and snatched up a key.

“You sound upset about this.”

“Yes, well, she was murdered so I’ll enjoy saying I-told-you-so at your funeral.” Severus sighed and then paused as he walked over to his private stores to look at him. He opened his mouth as if to say something else and then looked away. Normally, Draco might have stayed to dissect some of the strangeness going on, but right now he had other concerns. 

“Well,” he said instead, “I’m going to not get murdered and make this potion.” He said brightly, carefully picking out some other ingredients so the gillyweed would remain inconspicuous. He wondered if Severus would just give it to him if he said what he was really doing… not a chance he was willing to take. “Thank you, Severus.” He added when he had what he needed.

“Don’t waste those.” Was the only response he got.

* * *

Right, so _fuck_ this tournament. The second Harry entered the water, Draco started to panic. Now that Harry was good to go he was beginning to get really disturbed by the lack of Hermione and Ron. Where _were_ they? He knew they would never miss this. After thirty minutes of searching, he decided to get some reinforcements. 

“Professor?” He asked, shoving his way to where the professors were gathered together to watch the lake. It was a really boring task quite frankly. Watching a lake. A real heart stopper. “I - _hey,”_ he growled, slapping away a scolding Percy Weasley who was trying to tell him this was a restricted section. “Shouldn’t you be with your boss?” He snapped at him and turned back to McGonagall. 

“Mr. Malfoy.” She greeted. 

“Hermione and Ron are missing. I can’t find them anywhere.” He said and ran a hand over his face, “I haven’t seen them all day. I know we’re in the middle of a task, but-”

Whatever else he was about to say was cut off by Fleur’s screams.

“NO! I CAN’T LEAVE HER! _GABRIELLE!”_

He turned to see her being dragged onto land, thrashing helplessly with red marks around her neck and arms as she tried to re-enter the water, still screeching in French. Gabrielle. His mind replayed the song Harry had told them. The one about taking something dear… 

Ah, _fuck_ no. 

“Are you kidding me?” He asked and this time all the teachers turned to him in varying states of guilt or outrage. “What happens if they don’t get them in time?” He asked. “You can’t be risking the lives of your own students! They aren’t even involved in this tournament-” he began, but was cut off by Dumbledore shaking his head.

“They are not in any danger. If they are not retrieved within the hour they will be returned unharmed.” He said. Draco remained unimpressed. Though there was a hint of relief there as well. Hermione and Ron were safe at least.

“Does she know that?” He asked, gesturing to Fleur still sobbing. “And why does Harry get two people taken?” He asked. That was hardly fair. Cho and Cedric had re-emerged now. Dumbledore smiled merrily at him. 

One day… one day Draco was going to roundhouse kick that man’s smug smile right off of him. Before he could complain more, there was another splash and…

“Viktor?” He muttered. Hermione was Viktor’s person? They had only known each other for - oh, whatever. Draco needed to tell Fleur her sister wasn’t condemned to death. It was sucky nobody else had bothered. 

Throwing one last glare over his shoulder, he marched to where the others were drying off. Hermione seemed baffled at how she had gotten wet at all. Had they even explained to her what was happening? He hated this damn school.

“Hey, Fleur. Fleur. Hello.” He said, kneeling in front. A few Beauxbatons students tried to wave him away, but he flipped them off in return. “She’s not in danger. Dumbledore said they’ll bring her back when the hour is up.” He said. Fleur gave a shaky breath.

“You’re sure?”

“Positive.” He said and she gave a watery nod, “Besides, knowing Harry he’ll just grab her too. He’s - holy fuck I was _kidding_.” He said when Ron and Gabrielle broke the surface of the water. Fleur jumped up, moving towards the edge of the lake to greet her sister, wrapping a large towel around her with murmurs of reassurances and apologies.

After a few minutes of Fleur fussing, Gabrielle peered over at Draco.

“Is he our cousin?” She asked, quite bluntly. Draco blinked. Excuse him? Why was this eight-year-old asking about familial relations? Fleur glanced over at him.

“No, _ma chérie,_ ” She said and ran a hand through her hair, “He is a friend.” She told her and Gabrielle tilted her head.

“He looks like us.”

“I do not!” Draco spluttered. “You realize you were just held hostage in a lake?” He asked, but this seemed to be the last thing on Gabrielle’s mind.

“Yes, you do.” She said. Draco looked at her. There were maybe some similarities, sure. They were all pale, with blonde - almost white - hair. That hardly meant anything though. His eyes were gray. Theirs were dark blue… or violet, perhaps.

“I don’t see it.” He finally said and Gabrielle looked at Fleur expectantly.

“...his parents are rather rude. Perhaps he is like a brother.” Fleur decided, possibly to appease her. Draco felt his mouth drop.

“What? No-”

“I want a brother!” Gabrielle beamed and Draco looked around in alarm. What was happening? Was this happening? No. “We will see you for Easter?” She asked as Fleur led her away.

“I don’t know you!” He shouted after them. Somehow nobody else seemed to really be reacting to this. Possibly because Harry had made his grand re-entrance, “You can’t just forcibly adopt people!” 

“I don’t know. Draco Delacour actually has a lovely ring to it.” A voice said and Draco turned to find Theo behind him. Well then. He narrowed his eyes. Him and Theo hadn’t exactly been on speaking terms in a couple days.

“Where’s Pansy?” He asked and snatched up a towel to find the others. Theo held up a hand to stop him.

“I came to apologize,” he said. Interesting. Draco got the feeling he was expected to say something along the lines of ‘no, I should apologize’ but he wasn’t going to because he had yet to decide if he believed that. “Well, to apologize and also see the task… not that I saw anything other than people exiting the water.” He added with a frown.

“It was exhilarating.” Draco said flatly and Theo gave him an exasperated look.

“I… meant what I said before. About us not lasting.”

“A great start to an apology.”

“Can you not be an ass for a couple minutes?” Theo asked and Draco raised his hands to feign surrender. “I didn’t handle the situation well, admittedly. Fleur was all over you and…” he made a face, “I mean, I really did want to be there with you,” he grumbled and crossed his arms protectively over his chest, “But I don’t know how things are going to be in a few months from now! People like us don’t typically date and it’s fun and all, but you could wake up one day and realize you like… someone else.” He said slowly, “And that’s okay, but it sucks to think I would lose you _and_ my family. If I take precautions then at least I have a chance with one or the other.” He said.

“You keep saying your family doesn’t matter.” Draco reiterated for possibly the hundredth time. Theo sighed.

“In theory, no. They don’t. Practically speaking? I would have nowhere to go, Draco. I don’t have an Andromeda or Gryffindor friends that would take me in.”

“I would,” Draco shook his head, “Even if it didn’t work out… I wouldn’t just leave you with nowhere to go.” He said. Theo opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off by someone clearing their throat. They both turned to find Ron, sopping wet standing to the side.

“Hi,” he greeted wryly, “I’m sure you’re both having a lovely moment, but Harry’s score is about to come up and I need Draco to _please_ dry me.” He added with a fierce glare at Theo. Oh. Right. Draco flicked his wand and immediately there was a sharp zipping sound as the water evaporated off of him. “I’ll sock you in the nose.” He added to Theo before reaching over to drag Draco towards their group.

“He was apologizing.” Draco informed him. Ron shrugged. “...did you apologize to Hermione?” He asked. Ron gave him a considering look.

“You should remember you’re smaller than me.” He said. Draco crossed his arms over his chest. 

“Why does that matt - _Ronald!”_ He screeched when Ron unceremoniously shoved him into the water without a hint of regret. He flailed for a moment before splashing in the chilly depths of the lake. There was a low laugh as Draco swam back up, already planning his revenge. 

“Am I going to have to save you too?” Harry’s voice came. He was kneeling on the dock, looking down with amused eyes as Draco moved a bit closer to him. “Thanks for the gillyweed. It worked out pretty well.” He added. 

“Neville was the one who knew about it,” Draco shrugged and gave him a light splash. “Heard you came in last.”

“Don’t you start,” Harry sighed. His hair was still dripping, letting droplets fall against his glasses as he wrinkled his nose, “Ron already told me off about it. Said I should have left Fleur’s sister behind because she wasn’t actually in danger,” he said and paused, “It feels kind of obvious in hindsight.” He said, rubbing the back of his neck. Draco grimaced. It was, actually. His own temper tantrum seemed a bit silly now as well.

“Better safe than sorry, I guess.” He said and lightly splashed him again. “Help me up so I can kill Ron.” He said and when Harry offered his hand, yanked him off the side into the water with him. A few onlookers gave exasperated looks as Bagman and Crouch watched with their patented expressions of joy and disapproval respectively. 

“What was _that_ for?” Harry spluttered as he broke the surface, splashing Draco as he did so.

“Annoying me,” Draco said and held up a hand, “I’m not sure for what time. I just know you annoy me a lot.” He told him and climbed towards the deck before Harry could try and drown him. 

In the end, Harry got extra points for saving Gabrielle. Draco was hardly surprised. Gryffindor got extra points for breaking the school rules all the time so it wasn't too shocking that Harry got extra points for breaking the tournament rules.

Dumbledore most definitely had something to do with it. Honestly, the favoritism was unreal. 

The rest of the day went by in a blur. Theo sought him out again and they tentatively made up… there was a mention of ‘better communication’, which Draco was inherently intimidated by, but agreed to do better in simply for the fact he wanted Theo to stop being mad at him.

Hermione, for her part, seemed oddly quiet. It was a few days later when Draco decided to finally speak to her on the matter. Strangely enough, she wasn’t in the library or any of the empty classrooms either. When he finally did track her down, it was when she was sitting at the edge of the lake. Her books laid open beside her, forgotten as she stared out into the murky water. Draco didn’t say anything immediately. He crossed his legs and sat next to her, trying to figure out what was on her mind.

“It’s okay if your feelings are hurt,” he said finally, deducing what must be going on. Hermione’s eyes flicked from the water to him. “He’s your friend. Just because they chose Ron to be the person who he would miss most doesn’t mean he cares for you any less.”

“It’s stupid, isn’t it? And selfish.” She sniffed, wiping her eyes. Draco grimaced. Even after years of being Hermione’s friend he still felt completely out of the loop when it came to her emotions.

“I don’t think so,” He shrugged “But we all know Harry. If he didn’t have Ron who would do the stupid stuff with him? They were friends first.” He snorted and Hermione smiled a little at that.

“It doesn’t bother you?” She asked, tilting her head. Draco shook his head.

“Not really. That might be because of… Past familial events. I’m not sure.” He admitted and nudged her shoulder “If it makes you feel any better, I know you would be the person I missed most.” He grinned at her, “Me? _Alone_ in dealing with Ron and Harry?” He shuddered and Hermione’s smile widened.

“Draco,” She scoffed and moved over so she could lean against his shoulder. “It would be pretty taxing to have nobody to debate with.”

“Oh you would debate with those two plenty without me. Just about less fun stuff. Like convincing them to do their homework.” He told her and she laughed quietly. It was a fair point. Draco wondered what it would have been like if it was just the three of them – no Draco involved. It might have been a lot simpler for everyone.

“That’s true,” she murmured and sighed, “I suppose I did get picked as Viktor’s person,” she bit her lip and Draco looked down at her “I think that says more about his relationships than me though. He’s only known me for a few months.”

“Well, I’m sure most people just like him for his fame. You don’t do that.” Draco shrugged, jostling her a bit as he did so “That’s probably _why_ famous people like you. Harry. Viktor. Me.”

“Oh? You’re famous now?” She smirked up at him, “Did you finally snap and murder all the dark witches and wizards so they would stop disrupting your education?” She asked and Draco rolled his eyes. Honestly. He just came here to learn. 

“Of course, I'm famous. You know, the more I think about it the more I think I could survive a killing curse too," he added as Hermione raised an eyebrow, "My newest theory is that Harry survived because he just didn't realize he was supposed to die. I think that's how he survives most things, actually," he explained. Hermione snorted. "So, someone ever tries to kill me my plan is to just... not die."

"Riveting."

"Do you think Rita Skeeter would give me an interview with that as a quote?" Draco laughed, "Maybe she can lay off of the giant stuff with Hagrid and have a fun time with _that,_ ” he said and Hermione clicked her tongue, "Or the fact I went to the ball with a veela descendant. I'm sure my parents would die of shame if they realized." He added thoughtfully. His mother had never been impressed by veelas. He was pretty sure she associated them mainly with miscellaneous lust and other uncouth behavior. Maybe he should write and tell her.

“I’m going to kill that woman,” Hermione mumbled at the mention of Rita Skeeter and then tilted her head up at him. “Speaking of lovely Fleur. How did Theo take that?” She asked. Draco shook his head.

“Not well, actually.”

“Hm.”

“Stop it.”

“I didn’t say anything!” She grinned and kissed his cheek “Thanks, Draco. I know you hate it, but I’m glad you got sorted with us. You’re a good friend. My best friend, actually.” She admitted, “If they had to choose someone for me to rescue at the bottom of a lake it would probably be you.”

“Gross.” He grumbled, pushing her off of him. Hermione gave a bright laugh. “You’re my best friend too.” He sighed. 

“I would have to be,” Hermione told him, eyes twinkling dangerously, “Fleur definitely can’t be your best friend.” 

Draco stopped tugging at the end of his sleeve to give her a questioning look. He liked Fleur… a lot. But he had only just met her so he wasn’t sure why she was being considered a candidate as his best friend. Also, why couldn’t Fleur be? Hermione shrugged as if reading his mind.

“Rumor has it that Gabrielle Delacour was telling everyone you’re her brother-”

“Why does my reputation find ways to go even lower? I’m part veela now? Really?” 

“I think it might be a compliment.”

“Yeah, and Hagrid being half-giant is a compliment.” 

“ _Draco-”_

* * *

Rita Skeeter was kind of becoming an issue. 

And while Draco had fully expected her to take a jab at him, he hadn’t anticipated… this. 

“I am going to kill her.” Hermione whispered. Draco grimaced as he took a bite of breakfast. Ron snatched the paper from Hermione to read the cover, jaw tightening as he took a few slow breaths and put it down. 

“It’s really fine,” Draco told him. Hermione shook her head, looking truly too enraged to even say anything. “I don’t even care.” He tried. Hermione just got up and left, stalking out of the Great Hall. To do what? Draco wasn’t sure, but he really did fear for Skeeter’s life at the moment. 

Ron turned to him.

“It probably isn’t true.” He said and Draco picked up the article with a sigh. 

_A NEW HEIR ON THE RISE by Rita Skeeter_

_Happy news was revealed that the Malfoy lineage isn’t quite ready to end yet. It was only four years ago that a rather dramatic and unexpected falling out happened between the infamous Luicius and Narcissa Malfoy with their only child, Draco Malfoy. Since then, many worried over just who would take over the family estates in years to come._

_“The Malfoys are prestigious enough on their own, given that Mrs. Malfoy comes from Black blood makes it all the more important to carry on their legacy,” Blaise Zabini explained._

_Draco Malfoy, the couple’s fourteen-year-old son, was said to have been disowned officially during his third year at Hogwarts after continuously engaging in dangerous activity and getting involved in unsavory situations, which included a rather wild conglomeration of stealing a precious stone from the school, breaking and entering restricted areas, and running after a known Death Eater and mass murderer. Some even say he had hoped to reconcile with his lineage by engaging in the very Dark Arts his parents have long turned their backs on._

_However, happy news comes to the Malfoys at last! Rumors and whispers have long said the happy couple might be expecting a new addition to the family and now, through stellar reporting and investigation, those rumors have now been confirmed. This is especially happy news given what happened nine years ago-_

Draco slammed the paper down, unable to read another word.

“I know it isn’t true,” he breathed out slowly. And it really wasn’t. First of all, his parents probably were _pissed_ about this article already. People didn’t just _gossip_ about them. There would no doubt be a retraction soon enough. Besides, Andromeda already wrote him on the matter to inform it was rubbish. He had no idea how she knew, but trusted her all the same. 

“It’s _bloody ridiculous_ ,” Hermione said, reappearing out of nowhere to slam a book down, “I mean, come on. There isn’t a hint of truth in it. Look at this nonsense she’s spewing about nine years ago-”

“Hermione.” Ron cut her off sharply and then shook his head. Hermione blinked a few times before very slowly turning back to him.

“....that part might be true.” Draco muttered, “My parents are going to be really upset that she wrote about that.” He said, swirling his food around absently. Hermione let go of the book. “Don’t.” He added when she opened her mouth, “It can’t be all that shocking. You must have noticed the pattern in our families.” He sighed. 

“Pattern?” She repeated. Draco grimaced, trying to read her expression. He really did love Hermione, but the way she regarded pureblood ideals was very similar to how he regarded muggle ones. There were times they just didn't understand the other side of things... he was pretty sure this would fall into that realm. Still, he couldn't just not explain.

“Theo has an older brother. Sirius had a younger brother. My mother has two sisters. The Greengrasses have two daughters. The Carrows have Alecto and Amycus. The Lestranges have Rodolphus and Rabastan.” He listed off, "Every... single... pureblood family... unless, you're a Malfoy, of course..." Draco said, darkly, stabbing his food with a bit more aggression than necessary. Ron grimaced.

“Um, purebloods tend to have two or three children in case one dies.” He explained to Hermione softly, “That way you can be sure there’s always someone to pass along the inheritance to. That’s why it was a little… shocking when Draco got disowned. He was the last one.” He explained slowly. "Um, speaking of the Malfoy lineage...?"

"If they do have another child, I would be fine," Draco sighed, running a hand over his face, "I'm disowned so the lineage magic wouldn't affect me-" he started and cut himself off at the look on Hermione's face, "My parents aren't murderers if that's what you're thinking." He added to Hermione. That's what _everyone_ thought. In reality, his parents had been pretty horrified by what happened as well. His mother still couldn't go in the room where it... you know.

"I wasn't thinking that," Hermione said hastily. Draco shrugged, "I'm just... confused. That's all." She said and patiently waited. Draco looked around the table. People were staring. They quickly looked away when he caught them.

"I don't know who did it," Draco finally said, dropping his fork with a clatter, "It might have been a curse... or maybe one of my ancestors did it because they were feeling particularly bigoted. I'm not sure," He muttered, "But on my father's side of the family you can only have one son. That's just how it is. You never have any other children unless something happens like... if someone was disowned or died or something prevents them from collecting the inheritance."

"But... clearly that didn't work," Hermione said, tapping Skeeter's article. "If this is true, I mean."

"My mother grew up with two sisters. She thought it would be nice for her children to have siblings too." He said simply. Ron gave a weak smile at that. "So my parents went to a curse breaker. The wizard told her he fixed it. My father wasn't really sure, but right afterwards they had my sister so obviously they thought the spell was broken. Then I came." He said and stared at the table thoughtfully for a few minutes, "Turns out... he didn't really break the curse. Eventually, the magic sensed there were two of us and it picked the correct heir before getting rid of the other one." He said and shrugged. He had only been five. He didn't remember. Not really. Hermione put a hand over her mouth for a moment - clearly at a loss for words.

Ron bit his lip before reaching over to grab his arm.

“Hey, maybe you shouldn’t go to class today.” He told him. 

“I’m _fine,”_ he said, shoving his food away from him. “What's even the big deal? According to this, I’m being replaced. Who cares? It probably isn’t even true and if it is then it is totally fair. They need a new heir considering one is dead and the other just too damn disgraceful to be involved anymore.” He said. 

“It’s not fair,” Ron disagreed and lightly kicked him, “Come on. Let’s grab Harry and ditch. Your grades are already perfect.” 

“You’re just looking for an excuse to miss class,” Draco sighed, “I will not be a part of it.” He said and then looked around, “Where is Harry?” He asked. Hermione and Ron looked at one another. “Oh God.” 

“He was a bit cross that Blaise gave an interview…” Hermione told him. Draco groaned. The last thing he needed was a rogue Harry Potter. “Harry doesn’t really pick fights though so I’m sure it’s nothing to worry over.”

“Maybe we should go find Theo!” Ron suggested, a bit desperately. Things must really be bad if Ron was suggesting Theo as a potential ally. “Or we can play chess, or - um, maybe we can grab more sweets at Honeydukes. Those mint ones you like!”

“I’m fine.” Draco repeated. Ron looked at him. Then he chewed his lip for a moment. Draco felt a bit of his stomach twist before he finally broke, “I just… after Cassi my parents never mentioned having any other kids. Not once. It kind of felt like if anything happened to me then they were done,” he said and tugged absently at his robes, “I know Rita Skeeter writes a lot of rubbish, but… I guess they could have changed their minds…” He murmured. Ron shook his head. 

“We’re skipping class,” he decided and stood up, noticing Harry entering the Great Hall, “WE’RE SKIPPING CLASS!” Ron yelled to him. Hermione rolled her eyes, but hummed in agreement, snapping her book shut. 

“You’re agreeing to this?” Draco asked her. She only shrugged and pulled on his sleeve to get him up. 

“WE’RE SKIPPING CLASS?!” Harry shouted back and McGonagall cleared her throat loudly from where the teachers were sitting. 

“HEY! YOU DIDN’T TELL ME WE WERE SKIPPING CLASS!” Zoe shouted, standing up from the Slytherin table. “TRISTAM, GET OVER HERE! IT’S OUR LUCKY DAY! WE’RE SKIPPING CLASS!”

“THEO! HEY - COME ON, WE’RE SKIPPING CLASS WITH YOUR BOYFRIEND!” 

“Oh, one second - PROFESSOR! I CAN’T MAKE IT TO CLASS TODAY!”

“Oh my God.” Draco whispered, sinking in his seat. A few other Gryffindors were looking at them in interest before also deciding that they were skipping class. Neville had appeared to lead on a new charge along with Ginny, Fred, George, Dean, and Seamus. It was only after McGonagall stood up that the hall went silent. 

“Given recent events concerning the tournament and a rather appalling lack of ethical journalism,” she said with her voice clipped and stern, “And also because I don’t believe there will be high attendance today… I will cancel my morning classes this _one_ time.” She announced as her eyes narrowed at all of them, “Only this once and I expect to see you in the very next class or you’ll be in detention for a month.” She warned. 

The hall erupted into cheers. Ron punched the air in victory.

“Wha -? Ronald, we don’t even have transfiguration this morning!” Draco said loudly as the swarm of Gryffindors decided to parade him away. “We have charms - where are we even going?” 

“Hey, it’s your day, mate.” Fred said, slinging an arm over his shoulder. “Where do you want to go?”

“I don’t know,” Draco sighed. Whatever. This was happening, apparently. “Neville and I were going to experiment on some plants to make an eyesight potion.” He said in hopes to get them all to drop this. 

The thing about Gryffindors though… is that they were a lot like dogs. Very loyal and easily excitable by even the mundane. 

“TO THE GREENHOUSES!” George yelled and everyone stood up. 

“THE GREENHOUSES!”

He supposed there were worse ways to spend the morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Damnit, I will sneak all of my pureblood family headcanons in here even if it kills me. 
> 
> I really did think about making Draco the person taken in the second task, but I love Ron and Harry's canon friendship and couldn't find it in myself to change it... also, that would have 100% terminated Theo and Draco's relationship and I can't have their relationship end bc of Harry specifically (tho Theo does know there's some vibes there... he totally does...) speaking of which - Theco (Dracodore? they aren't endgame so they don't get a ship name, I guess) ... you're safe. For now.
> 
> Though we are getting the halfway markkkkk... I'm not saying the next chapter is the last happy Theo chapter but.... I'm not sure, fam. There are just so many things that could happen. After Voldemort comes back, who knows? 
> 
> Also! Now that Draco is a semi-decent person we get into the next stage of his development (: I think some of you have guessed what that might entail, but we'll get to see it more in action very soon. Also, Fleur is an underrated character. That is all.


	9. Year Four (In Which This Damn Tournament Turned Out Just as One Might Expect)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We’re so close to the halfway mark! That’s crazy. Thank you all for being so awesome. Also, I love all of your comments so much. Sometimes I gotta stop myself bc I wanna respond to some them to discuss, but also I would 100% spoil things so I just gotta smile into my pillow instead lol

It was becoming a bit of an unfortunate habit… playing peacekeeper between his friends and godfather that is. It seemed to be beyond all of their capabilities to be well-mannered around one another despite Draco’s constant interference. However, he would admit that since the Sirius Black debacle… he had been more, uh, biased as of late in siding with his friends. 

Still. He drew the line at the Death Eater talk. He had told the others Severus was _once_ a Death Eater. Now? No. Now, he was just a jackass. 

“I get the feeling you’re mad at me over the gillyweed thing,” Draco greeted as he marched into Severus’ office, “Also, full disclosure, Harry overheard you and Karkaroff talking. Your Dark Mark is burning. Please reassure me you are no longer serving the late Lord Voldemort so I can stop hearing about you and get my paranoid group of miscreants to focus on the third task.” He said, all in breath. 

Severus did not look impressed by Draco’s entrance.

“Potter thinks himself apt to snoop around, does he?” He asked and Draco sighed. 

“You can’t blame him when you go around making an arse of yourself,” He muttered. Severus’ jaw clenched, “You read that damn Rita Skeeter article about him and Hermione out loud in front of the entire class!” He said, “How old are you? Besides, nothing romantic is even happening between them.”

“The disrespect has finally worn onto you,” Severus told him, lip curling. Draco tried not to look too exasperated by the declaration. “What Karkaroff and I discuss is none of your concern.” 

“I beg to differ,” Draco told him and sat down, “I know what a burning mark means, Severus. My family would be pulled into this-”

“You aren’t part of that family anymore.”

“I need to know what’s going on if I want to protect them,” Draco threw back quickly. Severus closed his eyes. “Listen, I know… I know what they believe and what they are. It isn’t always good, but I’m beginning to doubt they would do well under the Dark Lord’s service.” He tried, but Severus was already shaking his head.

“They did before,” he said and when Draco opened his mouth, raised a hand. “The mark burns occasionally. As I believe Dumbledore once told you, the Dark Lord isn’t fully dead. That does not mean he can return though. Karkaroff is a coward and frightened of his own shadow.” He said. Draco bit the inside of his cheek and looked away.

“Are you saying Karkaroff won’t do well as a Death Eater now despite him being one before?” He asked. Severus took a long breath. Draco relented. “If you say it means nothing… I believe you.” He murmured. 

A long pause followed.

“I have a message for you,” Severus finally said and reached into his desk to pull out a letter. “Not for you exactly,” He amended as he handed it over, “For the... friend I suspect you will be visiting soon.” He added. Draco’s heart momentarily stopped.

Sirius. 

Harry mentioned he was nearby - hiding. The idea Severus knew was deeply, deeply concerning considering the last time they had met had… not been pleasant to say the least. Severus gave a weak grimace in return, possibly reading Draco’s mind (a talent the man actually possessed through legilimency). 

“I haven’t said anything. I won’t. I will never like the man, Draco. I wish you would stay far away from him. I don’t trust him or anything he does. He is the worst purebloods and Gryffindors have to offer,” he said, lip curling in disgust. Draco waited. “But,” he continued just when he was sure he wouldn’t, “I did some investigating into the Potter situation.” He admitted. 

Aha.

“I am not sympathetic,” Severus added sharply, “Quite frankly, I think it was good he was taken down a few pegs.” He added. Draco’s eyes narrowed. “But I can see… how perhaps even Black might provide better than Petunia Evans.”

Evans. Strange. He had called Harry’s mother Lily Evans. Draco knew that his aunt had taken on her husband’s last name so it was a bit odd Severus still referred to them by their maiden name… though, it was strange he knew about Petunia at all. He knew better than to ask. 

“And this is?” Draco asked, holding up the letter. Severus grimaced.

“A temporary truce that will be demolished the second we both get what we want.” He said and went back to writing something in front of him, “Now get out. I won’t be allowing you to steal from me again.”

“I knew you were cross about the gillyweed-”

“ _Out_.”

Draco clicked his tongue and stalked out. He was pretty pleased with the conversation though… all things considered. He was sure to bring the letter with them when Harry took them to Sirius’ hiding place. It was a horrid little cave littered with rat bones and… yep. Sirius himself looked like complete and utter filth. Even Buckbeak looked better than him, lying down with freshly cleaned feathers ruffling as they all bowed to him. He was surrounded by various newspapers scattered on the ground - most of which appeared to have been collected by Sirius himself. Draco leaned down to pick one up, noting the article Rita had written mentioning Lily and James was ripped in half.

“You’re such a Gryffindor,” he said as he watched Sirius chow down on a chicken leg. “Being here is stupid.” He scolded and Sirius glanced up with a quick, mocking face.

“Harry mentioned you pulled the Sword of Gryffindor out of the hat. _You’re_ such a Gryffindor.” He said and then paused, “Wait. It’s not an insult. Stop using that as an insult.” He said and threw a bone over his shoulder to grab another one. Draco scowled.

“Stop _telling_ people about that,” he told Harry and then turned back to Sirius, “This is still stupid.”

“I am fulfilling my duty as a godfather-”

“By dying with him?” 

“I’ve heard enough from you,” Sirius said and turned to Harry. “Hi.” 

Rude. Draco crossed his arms over his chest to glower at his cousin. It was… strange still. To see someone like Sirius and know that they shared blood. He had familiar features even, but they just presented so differently. His hair was black like Bellatrix’s, but even when it was matted and unkempt there was something about the way it sat on him that felt different. His eyes were the same color as Draco’s (and most of his family’s), but they were warmer somehow. More alive. He had his mother’s nose, Andromeda’s chin - all of it. Yet somehow he didn’t look a thing like any of them. It was weird.

“Hi, Sirius.” Harry said, looking torn between thrilled and anxious. He brought out more food from his pockets. Draco wished he had known what sort of state the man was in. He could have brought him more food and clothes and… 

“Why aren’t you staying with my aunt?” He asked, shaking his head. “She said you two were friendly.” He added. Sirius grimaced.

“I couldn’t endanger her like that.” He said and Draco outright laughed.

“There is more danger by not seeking her help. Remus is with her.” He added as a selling point. _That_ gave Sirius a pause, “Also, um, you might not be safe here.” He said and handed Sirius the letter he had tucked away in his coat. Harry and Ron both exchanged alarmed looks. Draco had figured it was better to leave this out in hopes of keeping them from overreacting. 

“Is that so?” Sirius asked and ripped the letter open. He read it a few times before rolling his eyes and then flicking it back closed. Harry stared, clearly waiting for more of a reaction, but Sirius didn’t give him one. Instead he jumped right back into their previous conversation on Crouch while Hermione kept vehemently defending Winky. 

“You went to Azkaban without a trial?” Draco asked after Sirius had revealed how Crouch had been the one to pass his sentence. “That seems risky given that you’re a Black.” He frowned. Sirius scoffed.

“The opposite, actually. I was the safest bet. My family hated me. The wizarding world hated me. My best friends were dead, presumed dead, and a werewolf who thought I was guilty. Nobody was exactly lining up to help me.” He said with a hint of bitterness. Draco bit his lip. Unlike Sirius, he… well, he had a different relationship with his family. He wondered if he was framed for murder if his parents might help him. It seemed strange that the Blacks didn’t try to help Sirius given they thought he had switched sides to serve Voldemort… unless they thought he was innocent. 

He grimaced inwardly.

“Sirius?” He asked when the others were about to head back and Sirius’ hunger seemed temporarily satisfied. “What… did Severus write you?” He asked. Sirius’ hand fluttered to his pocket, as if afraid Draco might snatch it from him. He gave a wry smile.

“Snivellus and I never got along,” he grumbled as Draco raised an eyebrow at the nickname, “But… him and I did have a mutual friend. Once. If there is one way for us to get along - at least temporarily - it is through that.” He sighed. Draco felt his interest rise. A mutual friend, huh? Could it be…? “Hold back a second.” Sirius told him with a nod. Harry paused by the entryway, “I just need to ask him something.” Sirius reassured him. Harry hesitated, but followed Ron and Hermione out. 

Oh boy. This should be fun. Draco grimaced.

“If you ask me a stupid question then I reserve the right to leave,” He said and Sirius clicked his tongue at him before bringing out a copy of Skeeter’s article. Draco groaned. “Not you too. I’m _fine_.” He promised. Sirius only shrugged.

“I figured they would badger you about it,” he said and looked fondly in the direction Harry had gone, “He’s really a perfect blend of Lily and Prongs… amazing given that he never met them,” he mused with a slight sigh. Draco nodded. He didn’t know Lily or James to give much commentary to that, “Did he leave out anything about what’s happened this year?” He asked and Draco snorted.

“You brought me here to tell on Harry?”

“No,” Sirius said innocently, “I just know you’re _so much_ more reasonable than those other three-”

“Flattery will get you nowhere,” Draco told him with a hint of a smile, “I think he covered it all. The second task was a bit rushed, but he hit all the major points - and the World Cup.” He mused and then grinned, “He didn’t tell you about the Yule Ball though.”

“There was a ball?” Sirius asked, mouth dropping. “Who did he go with?!”

“Parvati Patel. He kept staring at a different girl _all night_ though. He tried to ask Cho Chang, but she was already going with Cedric Diggory. It was a mess.” 

Sirius gave a cackle at that. 

“So Cho was the one he was staring at all night?” He asked. Draco nodded, “...and only her?”

“Um, yeah? I don’t think he’s going around staring at _everyone_ like a lovestruck hippogriff,” Draco mused, “Why do you ask?”

“Eh,” Sirius shrugged, smirking as if he had some sort of secret that Draco wasn’t allowed to know, “I notice things. Don’t worry your pretty little head about it.” He said. Draco scowled. Whatever. He didn’t need to know… except he kind of wanted to know. Who else would Harry even be staring at? He seemed so smitten by Cho. “Who did you go with?” Sirius asked. 

Ah. 

“Fleur Delacour,” he answered, rubbing the back of his neck. Sirius blinked.

“The other champion? From Beauxbatons?” He asked. Sirius gave a low whistle, “Okay, then. Congrats.”

“Yeah… my boyfriend wasn’t as impressed.” 

“Your-? Oh my _God,_ ” Sirius said and laughed harder. Draco sighed, “I wish I was there to see this shit myself. Why did you ask this random veela to the dance instead of the person you’re dating?” He asked. Draco crossed his arms over his chest with a glower.

“...it’s a long story.” He finally grumbled. Sirius fixed him with amused eyes, “Shut it. I’m done gossiping with you.” He complained. 

“Hey, if it makes you feel any better, James once asked me on a Valentine’s date as a joke right after him and Lily started going out. He was just messing around - he had this whole romantic evening planned for the two of them - but Lily retaliated by spending the day with his parents… Fleamont and Euphemia loved it.” 

Draco snorted. That was a sort of pettiness he could admire. 

“Well, did you enjoy your date?” He asked. Sirius considered.

“I did at first, but then the prat refused to pay. Honestly. _I_ was the disowned one with no money! Not him! Then he had the audacity to say his love was payment enough.” Sirius grumbled, looking still slightly peeved by this fake-date that happened twenty years ago. 

“Harry is just as rude,” Draco told him, leaning him against the cave’s wall, “Speaking of which, now that I’ve given you all the tools to properly make fun of him, are you done trying to con information out of me?” He asked, raising an eyebrow. Sirius put a hand over his chest.

“I just want to get to know you better,” he said and then his expression softened, “And seriously, I did want to say sorry about Cassiopeia,” he said and in the back of his head, Draco could only imagine Harry’s outrage at hearing his sister’s full name, “I hope your parents make Skeeter pay for that.” He added. Draco looked at the ground. 

“Did… you ever meet her?” Draco asked, trying to do the math in his head. Sirius would have been seventeen when she was born… so disowned. Sirius surprised him by nodding.

“Narcissa let me see her once,” he shrugged, “Lucius almost had a heart attack when he saw me there.” He snorted and shook his head, “She was a cute baby, I guess. That’s really all I knew about her. I figured something must have happened when I saw you here and not her.” He mused. Draco considered. He honestly hadn’t thought of that. Cassi never came to Hogwarts. He wondered how she would have reacted to him getting sorted into Gryffindor… it might have been nice if she sided with him. Who knows? She could have been in Gryffindor too. 

“I’m fine,” he said again, though he couldn’t really decide who he was telling it to anymore, “It was a long time ago. I barely remember any of it.” He said. Sirius looked him over for a long time before nodding. “Tell me what you want to eat and we’ll find a way to send it to you… also, a bottle of Sleakeazy potion.” He added. 

Sirius grinned. It was nice to see him, Draco decided. He would be sure to mull over some of the stranger parts of the conversation later (a mutual friend between Severus and Sirius was fascinating… plus, Draco was a little indignant at the idea that Harry might fancy someone else that Sirius had somehow noticed and not him. Please! Draco was around him all the time. He would have caught on if there was some other girl involved). 

He wouldn’t worry over it too much now. Instead, he filed the information away for later. He had other concerns to handle. Namely? Rita Skeeter. _Again._ The woman was getting on his last nerve. Now that she had written about poor, tragic Harry in the tournament, Harry’s prophesized death, Hagrid’s giant blood, and Draco’s relationship with his family she had apparently moved onto Hermione. 

Yeah. Draco drew the line at Hermione. He wasn’t kidding around when he said she was his best friend. Which was why he decided to do some investigating the next morning when the first round of hate mail burst at their table.

“Oh, for the - _really?”_ Hermione asked, looking at one of the letters that bore in magazine cutout letters ‘Harry Potter deserves better’. Draco grimaced. Did he? Did he really? He turned to look at where Harry was also staring at the letter in shock, a bit of porridge falling out his spoon. A flash of irritation crossed his gaze, glasses concealing most of the suspecting rage. Draco stood up.

“I have something to take care of,” he said with a small smile that was a hundred percent fake. Hopping up, he weaved his way to where the Slytherin table was and sat down. 

“And what are you doing here?” Pansy asked, taking a bite of her cereal. Draco plopped down the Witch Weekly magazine in front of her. Rita Skeeter’s most recent article was bolded on the front page with Hermione’s name written in some ridiculously loopy font. Pansy clicked her tongue. “Oh, yeah. I did an interview with her. Very sweet woman,” she said. Draco nodded. 

“You know I have no qualms over hitting a girl, right?” He asked and Pansy blanched. 

“Are you _threatening_ me?”

“Definitely,” a voice said and Draco turned to find Zoe and Tristam sliding beside him, “Quite frankly, darling, you’re embarrassing yourself.” Zoe said, plucking up the Witch Weekly and reading out in a mocking voice, “‘Hermione Granger is really ugly,’ says Pansy Parkinson, a pretty and _vivacious_ fourth-year student, ‘but she’d be well up to making a Love Potion, she’s quite brainy. I think that’s how she’s doing it.’ Oh, Pansy,” Zoe grimaced, “Come now. Have some standards. If you went around starting silly qualms for every person who called you pretty, people might start to think you’re not,” she said, snapping the magazine shut. 

“It’s _true-”_

“Anyone with two eyes and a few brain cells knows nothing is going on between Potter and Hermione,” Tristam said, picking up a piece of bread to butter, “Love potion. As if.” He snorted and threw an arm over Draco’s shoulders, “Unfortunately, Malfoy here has reason for concern. I heard she’s been getting hate mail, hasn’t she?” He asked. Draco gave a small nod. He hadn’t known whether to reveal that or not… Pansy might revel in the fact people were sending Hermione such wicked letters over Skeeter’s article proclaiming Hermione’s ‘devious’ intentions getting Krum (and Harry apparently) to like her.

“Oh, _that_ won’t do.” Zoe said and looked at Pansy with a small frown, “Blaise, come here!” She called joyously. Draco peered down to see Blaise pause in reading the prophet to glance over warily at them. Upon seeing Draco, he sighed and slid over.

“This is about Granger, isn’t it?” He asked solemnly. “If you’re about to ask me to get an article retraction the answer is _no_.” He said firmly. It was then that Draco remembered Blaise’s mother was once married to the owner of Witch’s Weekly… and after he died, she assumed control. 

“Blaise.” Tristam said and gave a vague gesture, “Please. We all have dirt on one another. Don’t make this stupid article be the thing that makes us all dig it out.” He said and leaned forward, “After all, Rita Skeeter isn’t the only one who knows how to write good gossip.” He winked, “And, uh, Zoe here looks like she’s feeling a bit lucky.” He added as Zoe beamed and tugged at her hair. 

Draco had no idea what dirt he apparently had, but Blaise paled slightly. 

“You cannot threaten me-” he began, but Tristam tilted his head. There was a dare behind the playful smile he was wearing... one that even Draco wouldn’t want to test. Blaise backtracked. “Honestly, over a mudblood?” He asked and when silence followed, clenched his jaw. “Fine… but you owe me," he muttered and snatched his paper up to storm away. Draco watched him go in awe.

“What about you, Pansy?” Zoe asked and plucked a pear from the table. “You know, if you tell us how Rita keeps getting her information, I’ll call you pretty too.” She purred. At that, Pansy’s face went dark red. She slammed her food away from her before stalking off. 

“...thank you.” Draco said as he watched her go. Zoe shrugged. 

“I like Hermione,” she said and offered him a bit of her toast, “Hey, we’re going potion tasting later with the Durmstrang crew. Want to come? Could be an excuse to break out those dress robes again.” She smiled. Draco faltered.

“Um, not sure… that I can…” He said slowly and gave a vague gesture to himself. Zoe’s smile fell for a moment. Potion testing was something that, upon further reflection, was a rather… alienating. _Traditional_ , if one was being kind. 

There were many potions out there that were (for a lack of a better word) for more… self-care purposes. They cleared your skin, hydrated your hair, made you smell good, relaxed you - those sorts of things. Usually, because these potions were meant to be taken as a sort of spa day, potioneers made extra effort to compete with one another and make their concoctions taste better than their competitors. It was a lot fun to hang out with friends and family while trying a bunch. Draco’s mother _loved_ it. 

However, oftentimes… well, these potions were often spiked with blood identifiers. Muggleborns, muggles, and bloodtraitors couldn’t drink any of it without the potion turning to spoiled milk.

“Nah, Viktor Krum took Hermione to the ball. No way they would add that stuff to them-” Tristam began, but Zoe cut in with a shake of her head.

“Unless they were packaged that way,” she pointed out. Tristam’s face fell. “Sorry, Draco.” She added as Tristam threw up his hands.

“How do they even define a bloodtraitor through that anyways? Seems like a brand of magic that could go a bit wonky to me.” He grumbled, “I just think - ah, Weasley.” He cut himself off and Draco looked over to see Ron walking over. 

“McGonagall wants you back over at our table,” he said with a wave at Tristam, “Sorry.” He added. Draco groaned. Wasn’t house unity supposed to be a thing? How could they do that if they were _always_ separated? Nonsense.

“I’ll see you guys later. Where’s Theo by the way?” He added, scanning the table as he got up. 

“Having a mental breakdown,” Tristam snorted. Draco frowned before looking at Ron who shrugged. “He’s trying to get you an apology gift.” He added. Draco stared. 

“We aren’t fighting anymore?” He said and Tristam took a long sip of milk.

“Wait. You’re not?” Ron asked and Draco turned to him. The idiot had been there when Theo apologized. “But he didn’t invite you to that Durmstrang thing?” Ron frowned. Wait. What? “You know, the potion tasting thing you pureblood elitists seem to enjoy so much?” He clarified. 

“Yeah, because I can’t - wait. _He_ can go?” Draco asked. It wasn’t really fair to be annoyed by that. Theo was hanging by a thread, but he was indeed, still hanging. His Yule Ball display had assured everyone of _that_. Zoe grimaced. “Unbelievable.” He muttered. 

“Oh… no,” Ron said as he quickly walked after him, “Um, this might be my fault. I thought he was going to that because you two were still fighting and told him I was going to sic Hermione on him if he didn’t do something nice for you… hence the gift.” He explained, rubbing the back of his neck.

“I can’t believe he was going to just go without telling me!” 

“How come everytime I try to do something nice for you it backfires?” Ron complained, “Listen, for what it’s worth I don’t think he _wanted_ to go.”

“Then why is he?” Draco said and then yanked his bag off of the bench he had left it on, “You know what? I don’t even care. I have muggle studies to go to and we’re going to learn about video games and it’s going to be great. Bye.” He announced.

“It sounds like you do care!” Ron called after him. Draco flipped him off for his efforts. 

The rest of his day went fine… until Theo appeared with a huge box. 

“I can explain,” he greeted and Draco paused in putting some of his books away to give him a cool look, “Oh, come on. I wasn’t actually going to go,” he said. Draco pretended not to care… because, you know. He didn’t. Theo stepped out in front of him.

“You drive me mad,” he muttered and before Draco could retaliate, shoved the box towards him. “Go on. Open it. Then grovel for my forgiveness once you realize how wonderful I am,” he said, stepping back. Draco looked around. A few stragglers were curiously watching as they made their way to their classes, but other than that the corridor was empty.

Oh, whatever. Draco ripped open the box.

“You know, you can’t just buy me stuff and expect - oh.” He cut himself off. Theo gave a satisfied hum. “You… got stuff for potion tasting?” He asked, admittedly kind of confused as he looked at the case of different colored potions all neatly labeled with lace and ribbons. If he couldn’t drink it with the Durmstrang students he couldn’t very well drink it with Theo.

“I had Professor Snape help me modify it!” He said proudly. “I told him I wanted extra credit… I’m pretty sure he knew it was for you though,” He told him and then frowned, “Then somehow my grade got worse afterwards. I don’t think he likes me very much.” 

Draco bit back a grin as he looked down fondly at the box and then to Theo once more.

“I see,” he said and calmly put the top back on the box. Theo looked at him expectantly. “I’m sorry I jumped to conclusions.” He said and then gave him an accusatory glower, “But you gave the whole ‘we need better communication’ speech and then didn’t communicate this to me-”

“Because it was meant to be a _surprise_.” Theo interrupted. 

“Oh. Well,” he grumbled, “Thank you…” 

Theo rolled his eyes.

“You're welcome. Also, a few of the Durmstrang students aren’t thrilled by the blood exclusion either so when I told them I made modified version-”

“ _Is Viktor Krum coming?”_ Draco asked and Theo stopped talking to look at him over with thinly veiled amusement. “Sorry. Sorry, it’s just since he was interested in Hermione I had to play it cool but-”

“But you’ve been fighting the urge to fanboy?”

“He’s like one of the youngest international players _ever-”_

“Oh my God,” Theo laughed and grabbed his hand, “Come on. Let’s get these set up. No offense, but you do look like you can use some sort of Pepper-Up potion-”

“Oh, excuse me?” Draco gasped, though it was hardly filled with any real ire as Theo pulled him down the corridor. 

The whole thing was actually really nice. Fleur stopped by with some Beauxbatons friends too. Hermione also came (with a rather irked Ron who was trying and failing not to act like he was having fun). 

“This is stupid,” Ron said and turned to where Harry had entered the room looking dumbstruck by the entire event, “What’s this supposed to even… ooh. Blueberry.” He said, sipping a bit of skin-clearing serum. “Wow, my skin is so tingly.”

“Try this.” Fleur said, suddenly appearing to put a pink bottle in Draco’s hand, “It will help you stay young.” She explained when Draco opened his mouth, shook her head, “You are very pale. It means you will age fast. Drink.” She said and disappeared again. Draco frowned. Whatever. He took a sip.

“Let me try,” Harry said and Draco held the bottle away. 

“You’re not pale so apparently you don’t need it.” Draco told him and Harry scowled before playfully grabbing at it. “That reminds me-” He started, but was cut off by Krum suddenly appearing with an apologetic smile to whisper something in Harry’s ear. He frowned.

“Um, sure.” He said and gave Draco a perplexed look before gesturing to where Krum had wandered off. 

...that wasn’t good. He turned to Ron, but he was currently telling two Beauxbatons girls about how he had been forcibly knocked out for the second task before battling several vicious mermaids. Draco rolled his eyes and went to Hermione.

“Hey, have you - hi, Zoe. Hi, Sadie.” He added when he saw the Slytherins, “Hermione, Krum went off with Harry. They left.” He said, taking a potion from her to make sure he had her attention. Hermione frowned. 

“Maybe they’re talking about the third task. Viktor said something about a maze.” She shrugged. Draco bit his tongue. Interesting. A little worrying. Draco pushed it to the side. Theo was dragging in more potions from seemingly nowhere (how many of these did he prepare?) and Harry was probably fine. Right? Right. Besides, Draco had other things going on. Gabrielle Delacour had appeared to bother him.

"Here." She said, handing him a slip of paper, "For Easter. It's where I live."

Not this again.

"I - what are you even doing here?" Draco asked her, already exasperated, "I know you're too young to actually be in school with your sister." He said and Gabrielle sniffed as she crossed her arms over her chest. It was really weird just how much she looked like Fleur. In fact, he could almost see the resemblance between the himself and Gabrielle a bit better. She would be around the same age as... Nevermind. He pushed the thought away.

"Mama said I can stay," she told her, "I have already mastered my lessons. I know the English and I can stab." She said firmly. Draco blinked a few times.

"You know the - you can _stab?"_ Draco said, switching to French to make sure he understood. Gabrielle nodded stoically.

"Mama says we must know to stab in case people try to kidnap us. I am not old enough to use magic yet. I am old enough to stab." She clarified. Huh. Draco looked her over for a moment before glancing around. Sure enough, Fleur was not too far as she spoke to a Durmstrang student, eyes occasionally flicking to her sister warily. He wondered what people had done in the past to warrant stabbing as part of an eight-year-old's pre-school curriculum. He got the feeling he didn't want to know. "Do you know how to stab?" Gabrielle asked him curiously.

"Not really. I fought a giant snake once, but Harry had to stab it because I wasn't very good at it." He told her. If any of what Draco said surprised her, Gabrielle didn't show it. Instead she gave a small nod.

"It can be hard," she told him sympathetically and Draco resisted the urge to smile. "You have to make sure you have something very pointy."

"I see."

"Then you put it in their face."

"That would be an excellent place to stab someone. Have you ever had to before?" Draco asked and to his relief, she shook her head before moving a bit closer to hold his hand. He froze - a little uncertain on how to proceed. Draco wasn't one to be bullied around, but he also knew that he was going to go exactly where Gabrielle was leading him because he had no idea how to disobey a child when she just grabbed one's hand like that.

"I'll teach you how to stab later," she informed him, "Can you get me that one?" She added, pointing to a blue potion sitting up top on one of the shelves. Draco rolled his eyes and reached up, checking the label before handing it over. He glanced down at Gabrielle who peered back at him with innocently large eyes.

"Why do you need a hair growing potion?" He asked suspiciously. Gabrielle just smiled at him. "...did your sister say you can have this?" He asked and Gabrielle smiled some more. "I get the feeling you're trying to trick me right now."

"No!"

"Your hair is already very long." He said and at that Gabrielle's lower lip came out slightly into a pout. "If you tell me what this is for I might give it to you." He said and Gabrielle frowned, looking at the ground to mutter something. "What?"

"...I want people to climb it like in the princess story." She said a bit louder. Draco stared. "The muggle girl told me it!" She said. Draco turned to find her pointing at Hermione. He hadn't noticed the pair talking, but apparently they had been introduced. Part of him thought he should point out that Hermione was a witch.. Eh, it didn't matter. "I told her that my sister said she looked like a princess at the ball and then she said that I looked like the cabbage princess who had people climb on her hair." She explained Draco frowned.

"Are you sure that was a compliment?"

"I don't know," Gabrielle admitted, "Maybe for muggles it is."

Fuck it. Draco might stop by for Easter.

* * *

Harry and Krum's walk did not, in fact, turn out fine.

Draco should really know better. Apparently, in true Harry Potter fashion, Viktor and Harry went for a walk only to come across a very bloody and very disheveled Crouch. Then, upon Harry leaving to get Dumbledore, Krum was then attacked by Crouch. Typical. 

Needless to say, Harry had spent the past couple days being bitter over the whole ordeal after he told Sirius and was properly told off in return. 

“Are you still pouting?” Draco asked as he stuck his tongue out of the side of his mouth in concentration. Upon realizing that the healing arts may actually be a good path for him, he decided to really go ahead and start learning some good spells and potions. 

Unfortunately for him, his newfound ambitions didn’t mean much to his friends who still liked to storm around the common room like raging moose.

“I’m not pouting!” Harry pouted. Draco looked at him. “I - he just wasn’t -”

“You haven’t gotten a good dressing down before and now that Sirius yelled at you for being a moron, you’re pouting.” Draco said and shrugged. 

Harry took a deep breath - as if Draco’s truth was somehow taxing - and blew out slowly.

“He didn’t yell at me.” He finally decided. Draco chopped up some dragon liver before looking up at him again. 

“...wrote loudly,” he said. Harry made a reproachful noise.

“I bet _you_ haven’t been told off before with your parents doting over you like some kind of pureblood prince-”

“You’ve met Andromeda, right? Sent me a howler last year? Threatens me constantly with cleaning?” He asked and Harry grumbled some more, “Sorry, I forgot you _have_ been told off before. Remus had a go at you last year, didn’t he?” Draco asked, watching Harry grow more indignant. 

It had to be strange… to go from living in a world where nobody really cared much about the stupid things you did only for some random adults to pop up and start scolding you. Draco didn’t blame Harry for being annoyed. He got rewarded for breaking rules often enough - and now his godfather was upset he went for a walk with someone? After he literally tried to track down a serial killer and used a time turner last year? 

Draco still supported Sirius on his endeavor to keep Harry from getting himself killed though. Maybe Draco would tell him about their first and second years at Hogwarts… just so he had a baseline for their levels of foolishness. He would love for Remus to be there too, actually. ‘Oh, you’re upset Harry was reckless enough to keep the Marauders' map last year? Well, we tried to steal a magical stone from Voldemort when we were eleven so that’s nothing’.

Poor Sirius was only a Level One parent while Harry was in dire need of several Level Ten parents. Draco might as well help his cousin out. 

“He’s _right_ ,” Draco told him, “It was stupid of you to just take a bloody walk with Viktor Krum in the middle of the night-”

“If you really think he’s all bad then why are you okay with him and Hermione?”

“I’m less worried about Krum and more about Karkaroff. If you really think he’s bad then he could easily manipulate someone like Krum - who is his _student_ \- regardless of his intentions.” Draco said and stirred his potion, “Also, Hermione is smarter than you are. I have less cause to be worried over her.” He added. Harry gave a small huff. “...though you do have uncanny survival instincts.” Draco added as an afterthought before shaking his head. 

“Do not leave Gryffindor tower after hours,” Harry lowly mimicked, “After everything _he_ did after school! Nonsense!” He said. Draco threw a piece of ginger at him. “Yeah, I know. Someone is trying to kill me.” He sighed, “Hermione already told me.” He grumbled. 

“And yet, you still complain.”

“Shove it. You complain more than anyone I know.” Harry said. Draco couldn’t very well argue that. Harriet also seemed to agree as she turned to give Draco a pitying look. He was about to comment when a shrill hoot caught his attention.

“Sirius again?” Draco asked, wiping his hands off to open the window.

“I hope not,” Harry grimaced, “He’s somehow found out about Cho. I don’t fancy her! Not really.” He grumbled, looking distressed, “I mean, she’s dating Cedric-”

“It’s from Andromeda.” Draco rectified upon seeing the familiar reddish brown color that his aunt’s own owl possessed.

“Have you told her you made up with Theo yet?” Harry asked blandly from where he was still slumped over in his armchair. Draco ignored him. The letter was fairly… short. Cautiously worded and… ah. 

Draco’s stomach dropped.

“I have to go.” He said and threw the letter in the fire as he passed. Harry sat up.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, family business.” He said as he grabbed his cloak, “When Ron comes back, hit him in the head for me. I’m sick of hearing how he bloody fought off fifty merpeople and helped Gabrielle Delacour escape.”

Harry snorted.

“He’s having so much fun though.”

“Fine, tell Hermione to hit him in the head then.” Draco called over his shoulder as he whisked out of the common room. He wasn’t entirely sure what his game plan was. Outright confrontation? That might not work well. Besides, a more… gentle approach might be needed. Steeling his nerves, he slid down a few of the staircases before stepping out towards the greenhouses.

It was turning to spring now, air moving from freezing cold to… well, just cold. Most of the snow had melted away, but the glass of the greenhouses still held some frost as he stepped inside, letting the magic warm him.

“Neville?” He called. The plants seemed to perk up at the name with leaves and petals fluttering about. He followed them, reaching one end of the greenhouse where Neville was gently using a dropper to put some sort of orange substance near the base of a purple flower. “Hey.” He greeted. Neville jumped. 

“Draco!” He said and stood up, “Sorry, I didn’t hear you come in. Daisy here is a bit temperamental.” He added with a glare towards the plant that seemed to bounce in the wind despite being inside. 

“....pretty sure that’s fluxweed.” He said and Neville shot him an amused look.

“Yes, I know. I just felt like Daisy suited her.” He said. Draco moved on. He wasn’t going to question Neville’s strange naming process. “I’m using some Pepper-up potion to help with the black spot.” He said with a nod towards the orange potion. Draco nodded.

“Right. Pepper-up potion?” He asked and then shook his head before he got sidetracked, “I mean… thank you for helping Harry with the gillyweed.” He rectified. Neville chuckled. 

“You came all the way down here for that? We sleep a few beds away.” He pointed out. Draco gave a weak smile in return. 

“I, um, needed to discuss something else with you. Privately.” He said and sat at the edge of one of the tables. Neville frowned. “In one of my letters to my aunt… I mentioned we learned the unforgivable curses. It was a little strange when she wrote back to ask me if you were okay. I wasn’t sure how she found out you were so upset.” He said and Neville froze. “So I asked why she was so concerned,” he explained and waited for a moment. “I got the reply today.” 

Neville looked down at the fluxweed again. 

“What is there to discuss?” He finally asked. For some reason, this almost felt like an admission of some sort. Like there was some silly chance Andromeda hadn’t been truthful. Draco looked at him for a second. It was so obvious in hindsight. Neville’s reaction at first hearing Bellatrix’s name, how wary he was of Draco at first, the pain in his eyes when he saw… 

“Nothing if you don’t want to,” he finally said, “But it… bothers me. That I didn’t know.”

“Was it my job to tell you?” Neville asked, more surly than Draco had ever heard him, “It’s your family. You should know the damage they’ve done.” He said. Draco tensed at that.

“I… I mean, I knew they must have done some things, but… it isn’t like I want to seek that sort of thing out, Neville. I don’t see them that way-”

“So, we’re just supposed to tell you? For your benefit?” Neville interrupted. “Draco…” He bit his tongue - eyes focused on the wall behind Draco’s shoulder.

“We’re?” Draco repeated quietly.

“You don’t think the hippogriff is the only thing your father has tried to get sentenced to death, do you? Or my parents are the only ones Bellatrix tortured into madness? Draco, it is said Nicholas Malfoy is the one who started the Black Plague! Your ancestors caused as much pain as your family does now-” He said and then winced. “I’m sorry. That was... that was blunt. I don’t mean to say you’re like that-”

“No. No, you…” Draco trailed off before nodding. “I get it.” He finally said quietly. “It just sucks that it’s something I need to think about at all.” He muttered. Neville looked at him. “...sorry. That was probably, um, insensitive. Given that… uh, you know. Your parents being tortured into madness probably sucks more.” 

“Probably?”

“Definitely?” He said and Neville grimaced. “Definitely.” He said and looked down at his lap. Neville gave a weak smile.

“It’s okay,” he told him. “It does suck for you too… but you’re not like them.” He said as a reassurance. It should have made Draco feel better. It didn’t. He wasn’t very fond of Bellatrix. He didn’t know her well enough to be since she was in Azkaban most of his life…

But the others? He hated the idea his father had gotten his classmates' family killed. That he would have to look at them, knowing… and the fact… the fact Draco knew deep down he still loved his father very much. Maybe he still would after brushing up on whatever awful things he had done. 

Maybe it did make him a bad person after all.

“I’m sorry,” he finally said… because there was nothing else to say really. “I want to do better than them.” 

“You will,” Neville shrugged and picked up his dropper, “Though, if you’re really feeling that guilty you can do me a favor.” He said lightly and reached into his bag to pull out a blue bound book. “Can you give this back to Professor Moody for me? I already read it twice now.” He said and held it out. Draco took it. _Magical Mediterranean Water-Plants and Their Properties._ “It’s where I read about the gillyweed, actually.” Neville told him offhandedly. Draco tilted his head.

“Really?” He asked and flipped through it, “That’s… lucky.” He said. There was a weird gnawing at his stomach that he ignored. “I’ll face the blasted eye for you.” He said. Neville shuddered.

“It’s _creepy_ isn’t it?” He asked and Draco smiled fondly. 

“I kind of want one for myself.” He said and snorted at the look on Neville’s face. “I’ll see you later.” He told him and then stopped as he went towards the masses of plants. “They would be proud of you.” He said over his shoulder. Somehow the words seemed harder to say if he actually looked at him. “I mean, I obviously don’t know anything about them… but. Yeah. They should be.” He said and took off before Neville could respond.

Moody’s office was on the opposite end of the castle, so Draco was all too pleased with putting enough distance between himself and that conversation by going to it. He knocked a few times before stepping back. 

He had… wary feelings about Moody. Harry and Ron said he had wary feelings about _everyone,_ but he thought it was ridiculous that after numerous professors attacked them that they _weren’t_ more suspicious of anyone with a teaching background. Plus, Moody was easy to be wary of. The man had a spinning eye and constantly drank out of a hip flask. Sure, yeah, it was supposed to keep him from getting poisoned or whatever… but it was _weird_. 

“Come in.” 

Draco made a face. God help him. 

“It’s Draco Malfoy,” he said (because announcing your presence seemed like a good idea with this one). “I’m returning the book you gave Neville.” He said and slowly opened the door. Moody was hunched over a desk, staring intently at his foe glass. 

“Ah, very good. Set it there.” He grumbled without looking away from the mirror. Draco curiously looked it over. He could see a few figures moving faintly, but none of them made a definitive shape. Draco dropped the book with a thunk and turned to leave. “Wait.” Moody called.

So close. 

“Professor?” He asked politely. Moody’s blue eye had stopped swiveling to fall directly on him. 

“Come sit, Malfoy.”

Oh, he didn’t want to do that. Not at all. Still, Andromeda would skin him alive if he was rude to an ex-auror. As a mother of an auror she demanded the world fall to their knees at the profession. Grimacing, he turned to an empty seat.

“Thank you.” He said, not really feeling thankful at all. Moody snorted and slammed a cup on the desk between them, pouring a questionable substance in it. Draco shook his head. “Not for me. I only drink what I pour myself,” he said wryly, “You understand, right?”

Moody snorted.

“Smart boy. Vigilance.” He nodded and then downed the drink himself. Draco wasn’t sure, but he strongly suspected he had just been offered alcohol. “I’ve heard a lot of things about you.” He said. Draco sighed.

“I’m sure you have,” he said. Moody’s lips twitched. “What house were you in?” He asked. Probably Gryffindor. Definitely Gryffindor. Draco wasn’t sure why he asked.

“Slytherin.”

Oh. Okay. 

“Ah,” he said and crossed his arms. “I see. How… surprising. Given your career choice.” He clarified, “I don’t hear much of Slytherin aurors.” He said. Moody hummed. 

“There are more than you think. Funnily enough, once you leave this school people don’t really give a damn about your house. Well, outside of purebloods.” He amended. Draco gave a dry laugh. “But contrary to popular belief, Gryffindor doesn’t own bravery.” He said and tilted his head, “And Slytherin doesn’t own loyalty.”

Draco wasn’t sure if he was receiving an insult of a compliment. 

“I… can agree with that sentiment.” He said slowly. Moody leaned forward. He smelled strangely of knotgrass, which might have been pleasant on someone else. Without warning, he reached forward to grab the front of his robes.

“I remember your parents,” he said and Draco inwardly felt himself crumble. Didn’t he just have this conversation? Was he about to learn of another way they had wronged the world? “They were Slytherins. Not a loyal bone in their bodies.” He said softly. Draco shoved his hand off of him. “Don’t agree? They weren’t loyal to you.” He chuckled, “They weren't loyal to Voldemort after he fell.”

“And who was Voldemort loyal to?” Draco asked, voice sharpening more than he meant. Moody hummed, leaning back in his chair. “Who are you loyal to? Dumbledore?” He asked sardonically, “The man’s allegiance is unclear to say the least.” He said. Moody clicked his tongue.

“Don’t like him?”

“I don’t have to. I still respect him. He’s a powerful man. Smart. I just don’t like how he runs this school. I came to get an education, not an adventure.”

“Oh, Minerva must love you.” Moody cackled merrily. Draco flushed. He wouldn’t say _that_. They just agreed a lot… also, she was hilarious and Draco stood by that. Minerva McGonagall’s comedic genius was _wasted_ on these people. He lost track of how many insults she had managed to slip in about other members of faculty without anyone noticing. “Well, I would hate to keep you from your studies then. Run along.” He said, giving a patronizing wave of his hand. 

“You like Harry, don’t you?” Draco said, ignoring the mockery. Moody paused. “I thought you were an ass with that show of the killing curse, but… that was a good book you lended Neville. Very informative.” He said. Moody went still. “I won’t tell anyone you helped.” He said and bit his lip, “As long as you keep doing it.” 

Moody scoffed. 

“Not above cheating?”

“I don’t care if he wins,” Draco said quietly, “I just want him to survive.” He said. At that, Moody gave a small nod. He looked… relieved for some reason. Draco couldn’t fathom why. “Please.” He added for good measure. He didn’t know what the third task held… nor did he particularly care as long as it ended this mess of a tournament. Moody tapped a finger on his lip.

“Don't you worry, Malfoy. I’ll be sure he reaches that cup safely.”

Draco wished that was more reassuring. 

* * *

They needed to come up with better tasks. Sure, the first one was good. They could actually _see_ what was happening - but the second one? Boring. Now they were expected to watch a maze that they couldn't even see inside? This tournament was so stupid. Draco bit his tongue in frustration. How was he even supposed to know if Harry or Fleur were in trouble? He just had to _wait_. Stupid. _Stupid_.

That is not to say he was bored though. Gabrielle made sure of that.

"Look! Look, look-" She said as a woman appeared from seemingly nowhere. Draco had been arguing over transfiguration techniques with Theo when the youngest Delacour appeared, tugging on Draco's robes incessantly.

"What do you want?" He complained and Gabrielle made a face at him before pointing to - ah. That would be her mother.

"Are you this Draco boy?" She asked and then held out her hand without waiting for an answer, "I am Apolline." She informed him. Draco offered a weak smile in return. Apolline looked strikingly like her daughters, though her veela magic must have been a tad stronger considering how everyone seemed to move around her as if entranced by a magnetic pull. Draco glanced around curiously. He wasn't actually all that affected by them, now that he thought about it. Might have to do with the fact he wasn't that into women. He would have to investigate that later.

"Nice to meet you, miss." Draco told her, "Um, this is my boyfriend, Theo-"

"The pureblood, yes. Fleur mentioned." Apolline said, watching Theo with dismissive eyes. Oh no. Draco winced. "Gabrielle tells us you will be joining us for some holidays." She added to Draco.

This was so horribly embarrassing.

"I, um, well-" Draco started, flushing pink right down to his roots. Ron snorted from Draco's other side because he was the worst. "I didn't really mean to invite myself or anything. My aunt usually spends the holidays with me-"

"Andromeda would probably love to join you though," Ron interjected and Draco elbowed him. Gabrielle gasped, spying Ron with absolute delight.

"He's the one who helped save me, mama!" She added, pointing him, "See?" She asked and Ron blinked a few times, looking a bit taken aback. Draco felt a small smile crawl onto his face. He turned to Ron who gave a subtle shake of his head. Draco smiled wider. Ron's eyes widened with panic.

"That's right!" Draco said and turned to Apolline, "You should hear the story. Ron says he fought off - how many mermaids? Fifty?" He asked, turning back to his friend. Theo gave a slight chuckle at that, though it sounded very strained even to Draco's ears. He leaned over when Ron began spluttering his explanations under the gaze of an intrigued looking Apolline and thrilled Gabrielle.

"Are you okay?" He asked and Theo raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, of course," He said. It was hard to try and keep a low voice with the crowd all eagerly buzzing around them, but he managed. Draco frowned, following his eyes out towards the towering maze in front of them. Draco wondered idly if Harry could just summon his broom again and fly to the center. It was probably against the rules... worth a shot though. From in front of them, Cho Chang was laughing with another one of her friends as they waved a flag with Cedric's name. "Poor Harry," Theo added with a frown at the pair, "I hope he doesn't win only to walk out and see that."

"What do you mean?"

"Didn't he ask her to the Yule Ball or something?" Theo asked and Draco felt a slight surge of annoyance. He wasn't sure why. Cho wasn't really doing anything wrong... Cedric was her boyfriend. She was talking with her friend while cheering him on. He didn't quite understand why he felt a weird sort of hotness in his chest looking at her. He shook his head. Oh _God_. Maybe the annoyance was because he was feeling defensive of Harry... was he becoming Ron?

No. Ron had no reason not to like Theo, but... well... Cho was nice enough, sure, but he would admit being a little confused by Harry's interest. She was pretty and played quidditch, but lots of girls were pretty and played quidditch. What made her so special? Plus, she barely had any interaction with him. She was dating Diggory. What right did she have to go around breaking hearts? Draco wasn't wrong to be indignant on the matter.

"A bit crass of him," Theo said and Draco frowned.

"Crass?"

"Well, everyone knows she's dating Diggory," Theo shrugged, "It's a little weird he asked someone else's girlfriend," he said and Draco pursed his lips. "Maybe he just didn't know." Theo amended, possibly reading Draco's expression. "You do say he isn't very observant." He added.

This was weird. Draco felt like he was missing a piece of the conversation. Theo's words weren't malicious... Draco had definitely said worse things about Harry. There was just a note he couldn't quite decipher. Almost as if Theo was trying to push something out of him. From somewhere above the maze, red sparks flew up, crackling across the sky.

"Is someone hurt?" Hermione asked, a bit further down on Ron's left as she inched forward with concern. Whispers went over the crowd. A few people started shouting out who they thought it could be.

"It's probably Delacour," someone said behind them, "She couldn't make it through the second task either."

"Shut up," Draco snapped back, irritated, "She's champion, which is more than you can say," He added and then narrowed his eyes to figure out who had spoken. Davies. Oh, how typical. "Are you still crying over the fact she didn't go with you to the ball?" He asked. Davies bristled, face turning a dark red as spluttered a bit. Gabrielle stuck out her tongue. One of Davies' friends glared back at Draco.

"Easy Malfoy," he called, "We know you have dibs on half the champions." He said and a low chuckle went through the group, "Congrats on landing both Delacour and Potter at that ball. You're really embracing being free of those pureblood marriages, huh?"

Gabrielle gasped.

"Don't talk about him like that!" She yelled fiercely and Apolline gave her daughter an amused look as she placed a reassuring hand on her arm, "They're _implying_ stuff," she added to Draco as if he didn't understand.

"Oh?" Draco asked, raising an eyebrow, "What are they implying?"

There was a pause.

"I don't know," She finally said, "But they're implying it." She said and glared at the group of Ravenclaws with narrowed eyes.

"Delacour _and_ Potter?" Theo frowned, tilting his head, "What are they talking about?"

"What? Oh," Draco said, turning back to the maze. Krum was the one who the sparks were for, apparently. There was a rise of interest in the crowd. Krum wasn't awake to really tell them much about what was going on in the maze. He wondered curiously where the others were. They could at least put markers above them. "After we got into that fight Harry came by to make me feel better," he shrugged and Theo blinked, "It was mainly just him trying to dance and me laughing at him." He explained.

Theo stared.

"Oh... um, okay," he said and then opened his mouth as if he might say something else before snapping it back shut. Draco tilted his head. He didn't have much time to ask what was on his mind since Gabrielle began climbing over him in an attempt to get to Hermione.

"Mama, come listen to the cabbage princess sorry!" She called, almost kicking Ron in the face. It was amazing how graceful she looked while almost falling out of the stadium. Hermione gave a slight chuckle at her entrance, but her eyes were fixed on Krum with a hint of worry. She gave Gabrielle a warm smile.

"I would, Gabrielle, but I'm going to check on Viktor real quick, okay?" She asked. Ron looked away at that, watching Hermione stand up to start shimmying her way through the stands.

"Is that redhead boy your brother?" Gabrielle asked after Hermione's departure and pointed to where the rest of the Weasleys were were reappearing. Oh. Right. They should probably join them. The Weasleys had all come to show their support for Harry, but once the task started they dispersed to socialize. Draco wouldn't be surprised if Andromeda was here actually... He made a note to look for her or Nymphadora.

"Uh, yeah?" Ron said, taking his eyes off Hermione moving quickly to the medical tent.

"Does he have a girlfriend?" Gabrielle asked. Draco snorted.

"Does he -? _Bill?"_ Ron asked, scandalized.

Draco would have deeply enjoyed hearing the rest of the conversation if it weren't Fleur also showing up unconscious. Draco sat up as Apolline put a hand over her chest in horror. Unlike Krum, there hadn't been any sparks in the sky for her. She was covered in dirt, looking as if she had been left longer in the maze than perhaps Krum had. Immediately, their group started shifting down to check on her.

"Draco!"

Yep. There was Dora.

"Hey," he said, abandoning the Delacours and Weasleys to join her. "Harry's still in there. Is Andromeda here?" He asked and Dora glanced around, frowning as she pulled him a bit to the side. She seemed tense. "Dora?"

"She was. I made her leave," Dora told him lowly, "Something weird is happening," she explained and gave Theo a small wave as she pulled him further away from the crowd, "Moody." She said, "I studied under him to become an auror." 

Oh. He hadn't known that.

"That's nice."

"Draco," she said seriously, "I know him very well. I thought it was weird he would teach in general, but... there is something wrong with him. I'm going to the ministry to get back-up, okay? Just make sure nobody goes anywhere alone with him." She said. Draco frowned. What? "I'm serious," she said when he opened his mouth.

"Okay," He said slowly and then looked back towards the maze, "Do you think he put Harry's name in the goblet?" He asked. Dora shook her head.

"I don't know. Just... be careful, alright? I'll be back." She told him and just like that was gone.

Draco...hated...this goddamn...tournament.

For awhile after that everything was fine. He joined the Weasleys and Theo to keep waiting for either Cedric or Harry to emerge. He talked to Fleur. Made sure Krum was okay. It was going fine… everything was going fine until damn Diggory turned up dead.

Honestly. Draco wasn’t sure what he expected with Harry skipping off in some sort of death maze, but it wasn’t him clutching another contestant’s body while refusing to move.

There was a pause in the celebrations as the audience began to digest that this wasn’t a victory. Screams began to filter through along with gasps of alarm. He watched as others began shoving themselves forward.

“Oh my God,” Theo murmured and clutched at his arm, “What happened?”

A dumb question. How would _he_ know? Draco didn’t spit out a response though. He was too focused on Harry as Dumbledore began to try and pry him off of Diggory. He looked… scared. Draco frowned. All of their adventures had encompassed some terrifying scenarios from giant snakes to soul sucking demons, but… Draco didn’t recall ever seeing _that_ expression of his friend before.

He didn’t like it.

Gently pulling Theo off of him, he gave a half-mumbled explanation before also throwing himself forward – flicking any charms and security measures away. He shoved a few of the adults to the side, ignoring the yells for him to come back as he went to Harry.

“H- he’s back. He’s back. He’s back. I didn’t… I tried- I tried-” came the shaking responses as Draco knelt down. He felt all too aware of Diggory lying between them, eyes open and glassy as he stared at the sky above them. Harry kept mumbling, seemingly unaware of anything happening around him.

“Harry, you can’t help him now. It’s over. Let go.” Dumbledore said, voice impossibly gentle. Harry didn’t let go. He stayed where he was. Shaking. Voice quaking as he tried to speak again.

“He wanted me to bring him back,” Harry mumbled, “He wanted me to bring him back to his parents.” He tried, voice catching, despite the numbness the words held. Dumbledore looked like he might say something else, but Draco wasn’t having it.

“Hey. Scarhead.” He prompted and reached out to grab his arms. “Harry, look at me.” He instructed and for the first time he saw what kind of state he was in outside of the blubbering panic. Blood covered the side of his face, drenching his clothes from what looked to be a cut on his arm. Dirt also mixed in along with tears. Draco swallowed and squeezed his arms tighter. “Breathe.” He tried.

“He’s back.” Harry managed once more. Right. Okay. Draco had this under control. He glanced over his shoulder to see a few others trying to intervene. He walked around, gently trying to pry Harry’s fingers off of the corpse.

“Let go,” he whispered, “Come on. You need to let go.”

“I promised I would bring him back. I’m sorry.” He said, voice breaking again. Draco clenched his jaw. He didn’t like this. He didn’t like this at all. Trying to keep calm for Harry’s sake, he pressed down harder on his hand.

“I know. Just let go, okay? It’s going to be fine.” He promised and at that, Harry’s body seemed to go completely lax – as if all the fight drained out of him at once. Draco took advantage of it and pulled him away, trying and failing to keep them both upright. “Alright, we’re okay.” He muttered and when he saw Skeeter pop up, pulled out his wand. “Try me.” He hissed.

“He’s back,” Harry mumbled and Draco turned back to him. “He’s back.”

They continued on with Draco keeping people away and trying his best to remember any spells he had learned for shock when Moody came from seemingly nowhere. Draco tugged Harry away from him firmly, remembering Dora's words. Moody didn't seem to be taking no for answer though, seeing as he practically yanked Harry away from him with murmurs of taking him somewhere safe. Already he was giving something for Harry to drink. Draco clenched his jaw and followed... he trusted his cousin's word more than whatever this weirdo claimed to be doing. Moody paused and looked over Draco before bringing out a bottle for him as well. 

“What is it?”

“For the nerves,” Moody said and continued down towards the castle. Draco frowned. He wasn’t sure he needed that. He rolled the bottle over before flicking off the cap and taking a small whiff. Interesting. His eyes fell to the golden flask still strapped to Moody’s side. When the electric blue eye fixed on him, he rose the potion with a smile. When he turned away again, Draco slipped it into his pocket. 

“-what did the Dark Lord take from you?” Moody’s voice broke through after he had brought them into his office. Something about the sentence jerked his senses a bit. There was something wrong with what he said. Draco couldn’t place it. 

“Blood,” Harry answered, fingers twitching to a hole in his sleeve. Moody licked his lips. Draco watched him for a moment. Something uncomfortable settled in his stomach.

“And the Death Eaters? They returned?” He asked. That sidetracked Draco for a moment. Who had gone? All of them? Had his father been there?

“Yes, loads of them…” Harry said. Moody leaned back, voice growing quiet as he tapped a finger on his knee.

“How did he treat them? Did he forgive him?”

Dark Lord. Moody had called Voldemort the Dark Lord. 

“There’s a Death Eater at Hogwarts!” Harry said right as Draco reached the conclusion himself. He felt a wave of panic as Harry stood up, “There’s a Death Eater here - they put my name in the Goblet of Fire, they made sure I got throug-”

“You sound tired,” Draco cut him off, “That’s a heavy accusation to make. Maybe after we get to the hospital wing-”

“No!” Harry cut him off, fixing him with a betrayed look. Damnit. _Damnit_. He grabbed Harry’s arm, but predictably, he pushed Draco away. Using it to his advantage, Draco stumbled towards Moody. Trying to appear as natural as possible, he fell against the professor for a moment.

“ _Onerariis_.” Draco breathed out as he stood back up. Harry was still speaking. 

“Voldemort said there was a Death Eater-”

“I know who the Death Eater is,” Moody said and went to push Harry back down. He paused when Draco grabbed his wand suddenly, raising it directly at him. 

“So do I,” he said coldly. Stupidly. Definitely stupidly because this was so, so, _so_ stupid. Harry blinked. “Don’t be foolish. There’s two of us and one of you.” Draco said. Moody snorted, eye whirling chaotically. 

“Oh, I hope he tortures your father, boy…” he said, licking his lips as he eyed Draco greedily. “He tried to mask his cowardice with you. Lucius wouldn’t accept his fate in Azkaban because he had _you_ to look after,” he sneered, voice growing mocking towards the end. “And yet… he cast you away so easily. How does it feel to know you were an excuse?” He asked, slamming the table beside him. “As a Gryffindor you should be insulted. As a _pureblood_ you should be disgusted.”

“Trust me,” Draco told him quietly, “I am both of those things. Just not for the reasons you think.”

Moody laughed. It was a horrible sound. Draco watched as he took a sip from his hip flask, wand still pointed between them. Thank God. Please, please, _please_ work-

“Just you wait. Oh, and _think_ what he’ll do to your mother… Bellatrix won’t stand for her own family being so lax in their service-”

“Nobody is _touching_ my family.” Draco said before he could think it through. Moody smiled. From behind him, he could feel Harry shifting - hopefully putting the pieces together. Moody looked over Draco’s shoulder, eye fixed firmly on him. 

“How you survived is… frustrating,” Moody told him, “After everything. Me putting your name in the fire, all the effort that went into leading you along-” He began and when Draco kept his wand up, cut himself off. “How are you still awake?” He asked, confirming his suspicion that Moody did, indeed, try to drug him. Relief flooded his chest. Draco watched as Moody went for his own wand.

“You know, it’s quite clever,” Draco told him when the man stumbled back, “Drinking from your own flask. It’s a good way to make sure nobody poisons you.” He said and Moody growled, pure rage flickering over his features. “You just have to be careful that nobody knows and transferring charms.” He added and lifted up the empty bottle that Moody had tried to drug him with. Slowly, Moody stared down at his flask.

Suck it, you one-eyed twerp. 

Moody held his wand up, but it sagged a bit as he tried to murmur something. Draco walked over and kicked it out of his hand as his one eye began to flutter. He turned back to Harry. 

“Come on,” he said, jerking him up. “We need to go. Quick.” He said. Harry was blinking rapidly, shock covering most of his features, but he didn’t need to be told twice as he got up. Draco was about to head towards the door when Harry suddenly shoved him. 

“ _Stupefy!”_

Everything went black. 

* * *

Polyjuice potion. Fucking _polyjuice potion_. 

Fun Fact about potions: If you mix two together then it could either kill you or lessen the effects of both in some instances. Unfortunately, he did not kill Moody (or Crouch as he later learned). However, the sleeping draught and polyjuice potion weren’t nearly as strong combined, which was how Moody (ahem, Crouch Jr) was apparently able to launch one last attack before Dumbledore, Severus, and McGonagall came along. 

Draco was a little bitter about the whole thing. Not that it mattered given everything else going on. Cedric Diggory was dead. Hermione had trapped Rita Skeeter in a bottle (much to Draco’s amusement). Harry won the tournament and Voldemort was back in action. 

Draco wasn’t sure what he had expected, quite honestly. Though now that everything had settled and he was left to mull over everything…

“Are you okay?” 

Draco glanced up from the fire he had been staring into. Harry was in his favorite armchair. He had no idea how long he had been sitting there.

“Yeah. You?”

“Been better,” Harry said cautiously and shifted a bit closer, “Um, listen. You probably already know, but I feel like I should say it anyways…” he began. Draco nodded. He knew what he was about to say… been waiting for him to say it.

“Go ahead.”

“Your father was in that graveyard.” Harry told him. There it was. Draco wasn’t exactly surprised, but the reality of it stung all the same. Stung. Maybe that wasn’t the right word. It hurt in the same way you knew it would hurt to fall off your broom...but made the risky turn anyways.

“I can’t convince him-”

“What?” Harry interrupted, looking alarmed. “No, I don’t want you to convince him of anything!” He said. Draco frowned. “I… this may sound horrible, but… I don’t think you should talk to him.”

“We’re not talking now.”

“I know,” Harry said, obviously distressed, “But what if they try to get you back by making you join the Death Eaters?” He explained. Draco would have been offended - should have been by the implication he would abandon them all for a glimpse of approval - but Harry seemed so upset by the mere suggestion that he stayed quiet. “Just… be careful, okay?” He added a little hesitantly. Draco pursed his lips, but nodded.

“Sure,” he said and then fixed him with a long look, “There’s also something I wanted to talk to you about.” He added. Harry looked at him - a hint of confusion playing over his features. “I know you’re going through trauma. You saw someone die. Voldemort is back and all that, but… I…” He took a long breath before sitting up and clasping his hands together. “I want to make sure I have the story right.”

“Um, sure.”

“You dueled Voldemort?”

“Yes.”

“After he killed Diggory and summoned his Death Eaters?”

“Yes.”

“I’m assuming he used the killing curse during this duel with you.” 

“Correct.”

“And… you used the spell we learned in our second year dueling club?”

There was a long pause. Harry opened and closed his mouth a few times before simply nodding. Draco gave a solemn nod before gesturing him a bit closer. Harry got out of his seat to walk over and frown right as Draco reached up to smack his head.

“ _Hey-”_

“You planned to _disarm_ him? What the Hell did you think that would do, Harry? His wand would fly out of his hand and then what? His Death Eaters were right there! You couldn’t have at least tried to stun him?!” He asked and hit him again. “I know you’re good under pressure! What the Hell?!” He repeated. Harry gave a grumbled response.

“I’m good at that spell.”

“Oh, that’s nice,” Draco said and fell back in his chair. “Expelliarmus. _Honestly_.” He said and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m so happy you’re okay.” He added, more to himself than to Harry. Not that it mattered. Harry’s face softened a bit as he digested the words.

“Me too.” He murmured and held out a hand. “Ron and Hermione want to go down to Hogsmeade. I don’t really know what else to do. I guess it’s… good to be normal. For now.” He admitted. Draco gave a nod of agreement. What _did_ one do after seeing the Dark Lord rise from the dead? “Want to come?”

Draco shook his head before giving a small gesture to the letter he had attempted to write and then re-write. He wasn’t sure how Andromeda would take all of this. It would be scary with Ted… with the ties to their family. Draco also knew Andromeda still had some unresolved feelings with his mother. They didn’t ever talk about it, but sometimes the way she looked at him… it made him think that perhaps her relationship with her sisters was a bit more complicated than she let on. He wondered how she would react learning that Narcissa and her would be pitted against one another in this war once more.

Maybe he would hunt down that Sherlock Holmes muggle if he was still alive. Together they could unravel the mystery that was his family’s complex relationships and never ending drama. 

Harry seemed to understand, eyes drifting towards the crumbled pieces of paper by his feet. Without another word he squeezed Draco’s shoulder before retreating towards the portrait hole. Draco watched him go before turning back towards the fire. He still needed to find Fleur and Gabrielle to tell them goodbye. Gabrielle, in particular, was downright _besotted_ by Harriet so he knew there was going to be a teary farewell for when she was no longer allowed to play with her on a daily basis. Draco kind of doubted it would be a very long separation though. He saw the way Fleur had been eying up Bill Weasley. An interesting choice, but hey. Who was he to judge?

“Ah, alone at last.” A voice said. Draco turned to find Albus Dumbledore himself sitting by the fire with a mug of tea in his hands. Draco honestly had no idea how long he’d been there or if he was somehow invisible during all this. Either way, he wasn’t thrilled to see the man. 

“Professor.” He greeted stiffly. Dumbledore smiled and patted one of the empty seats next to him. Draco looked over his shoulder before moving closer to the chair. “What can I do for you?” He asked without sitting down.

“I’m very glad you asked,” he said and let go of the mug so that it floated a bit away. “I’m not sure if you recall, but you and I once had a very interesting conversation about chess when you were eleven.” He said and it was then that Draco noticed Ron’s chess board sat between them.

“I don’t remember it being too interesting,” he said. Dumbledore hummed before reaching over to move a black pawn forward.

“Perhaps,” he said gently (though the look in his eyes were anything but gentle), “You and I should play a game and figure out exactly what sort of player you are.”

Draco wasn’t sure how… but a sudden realization seemed to click into place at once. Not just about what Dumbledore wanted… but what Draco did. He sat in the empty chair. After a few seconds he moved one of the white pawns into place.

“I like to think a winner.”

Dumbledore smiled.

“Then let us see.”

* * *

“Still hate muggles then?”

Draco almost tripped as he glanced around the platform to find Vernon Dursley looking at him. He was watching Draco warily, eyes slightly narrowed as he shifted.

Oh. Draco had forgotten to say hello. 

“Voldemort is back,” he informed him with a sigh, “That’s the man who killed Harry’s parents and the one my parents work for,” he said. Vernon stared at him, looking too shocked to respond. “I’m sorry I punched you in the nose,” he added. There was a pause in which Vernon’s horrified expression melted away into a scowl.

“No, you’re not.” 

“No, I’m not,” Draco agreed and pursed his lips. “Stay safe out there. He’ll be coming for you. Or maybe not. Maybe he knows that you’re a rotten lot and won’t bother with you,” he mused and then clapped Vernon’s shoulder, “Us snakes always survive, right? See you next year.” He said and walked over to hug Andromeda. From behind him, the twins were giving Vernon bright waves and offering him candy as Vernon put Harry between them as if to use him as a shield. Draco noticed a rather tall and frail woman watching as well. Petunia. Draco hadn’t gotten a good look at her before - he had always been so preoccupied with her husband - but he was curious about a thing or two…

“One second,” he told Andromeda and stepped back towards the Dursleys. Petunia narrowed her eyes for a moment, “Severus Snape sends his regards.” Draco greeted. 

Petunia dropped her purse. Huh. That was that then. Severus knew this muggle woman… and the only connection the two of them could possibly have is Lily Potter. A wave of frustration suddenly came over him as he looked at her. 

“You should be ashamed of yourself,” he said without thinking. Petunia gaped a moment, mouth puckering like a fish as she struggled to retaliate. Harry gave him a curious look from where he was saying goodbye to Hermione and Ron, but Draco didn’t pay him any attention, “You and him both. Was your sister really so bad of a person?” He asked, shaking his head, “Because the only two people who seem to know much about her treat her son like rubbish.” 

Granted, Sirius and Remus seemed to know plenty about Lily as well, but…. this was her _sister_. Draco hadn’t decided what kind of relationship Lily and Severus had, but it was important enough to make him pause when Draco brought her up. How sad was it that these people who were solely Lily’s were the ones to make Harry’s life so hard? 

“I… I beg your pardon?” Petunia finally managed, “You know nothing-”

“Ghosts are real in our world,” Draco told her coolly, “I don’t know exactly what happens to you if you decide not to be a ghost, but I bet you can still see what’s happening in the world of the living. I bet she knows what you did. You probably broke her heart.” 

“Draco.” Andromeda called, voice gentle. Petunia looked downright gray - eyes wide and mouth slightly open. Giving her one last dark look, he turned away. Damn bloody _Dursleys._

“Why does he have to go with them?” Draco asked his aunt, looking over his shoulder, “Voldemort is back. It’s dangerous to leave him with muggles,” he pointed out, “And he watched someone die. They won’t understand.” He ground out. Andromeda pursed her lips, eyes flickering between Harry and the Dursleys. 

“I know,” she said and grimaced when she looked Draco over. Dumbledore must have already written to her. Her eyes scanned him for a moment before giving a wary sigh, “Normally, I would say we should take him with us, but… it might be more dangerous.” She told him. Draco snorted. That was probably true.

“They’ll be coming after us then?” 

“Dumbledore has a plan to keep you safe.” Andromeda assured him. Draco tilted his head. Keep him safe? As if. They both knew the man had ulterior motives, “I know,” she grumbled, reading his mind, “But it will help you. You don’t have to do the rest if you don’t want to.” She promised and then sighed, “But we’ll have to leave tonight.”

Draco gave a weak smile and gestured to his trunk. At least he was already packed. Andromeda hugged him again. 

It appeared it was time to see how much of a Gryffindor he was after all. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So year 4 is done (: let’s talk about year 5 because I KNOW that y’all are gonna be mad at me and I’m gonna try and reassure you now that everything is gonna be fine. Just remember the real OOTP was a bit angsty with Harry being hormonal/filled with Voldemort rage/dealing with trauma. I mean, I’m still gonna be keeping the same vibe I’ve been keeping (not even war can stop Draco & Harry's snark and ignorant flirting), but also now we gotta start setting up some dominos on what new role Draco is gonna have in the war and stuff. And while we made him pretty chill so far we haven't quite made him battle ready. I mean, look at canon Draco. Smart af but my dude crumbled under the pressure. Imma need to iron that out of him unfortunately. 
> 
> I’m just warning you! I might even upload year 5 a bit quicker than usual so you don’t have to sit with the pain as long. My tentative schedule for this year is gonna be Part 1 Sunday/Monday, Part 2 Wednesday, Part 3 Sunday. I think. We'll see how that goes. Then we might have to go back to 1x a week bc while I'm technically finished with year 6... year 7 is a freaking mess of scenes in no real order right now lol. But yeah. Year 5...
> 
> I think the main thing I can promise is that Sirius will live... Also, as I'm finishing up year 6 I'm finding that one is LOTS of fun with Slughorn and all the awkward teenage stuff. So. That's gonna be good fun. Just survive some of the torment I'm about to put you through :D
> 
> see you soon!! 😊😊😊


	10. Year Five (In Which A House, an Elf, and Dolores Umbridge Become His Biggest Fans)

The world was oddly...pastel-ish. Draco crept quietly, ears perking up as he listened to the hum of voices get a tad louder and louder with his approach. From somewhere above him, paintings seemed to shift with curious eyes and low hums. The house felt familiar to him somehow. Maybe he had been here as a child. He couldn't be sure. It certainly felt welcoming now as the magic seemed to stir at his presence, warm and inviting him to move in closer. The voices behind the oak door grew louder.

“...dangerous. Don’t know why he shouldn’t be involved!”

“Because he’s a child? He’s only just turned fifteen, Sirius. You can’t bring him into this war. Any of them!” 

“Harry stopped being a child when he saw Lord Voldemort rise from the dead-”

“We have other matters to attend to,” another voice jumped in. Draco held his breath. Waiting. “With the Dark Lord getting stronger we need to watch for a prison outbreak. He will want his old followers to-”

“Where did Draco go?”

Damnit. He turned at Hermione’s voice, which sounded somewhere behind him as he quickly ran off towards the stairs. He waited to be sure there were no footsteps before climbing a few flights of stairs as other voices joined the chorus, calling his name. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

“What do you want?” He asked as he climbed around the corner. Hermione and Ron spun around, glancing towards the door frame with a frown. “I leave for five minutes and you _panic_.” He added with a small wave at where Harry was sitting. “I see you’ve made an appearance.” He added to where a new figure was on the opposite end of the room. That would probably be what Walburga was shouting about earlier.

“Hi,” Harry greeted flatly and fell back on the bed he was sitting on. “I got expelled. And then not expelled. Now I have a hearing.” He explained to the ceiling. Draco blinked. 

“...why were you expelled?”

“I was attacked by dementors,” he said miserably, “How was your summer?” 

Draco laughed. He probably shouldn’t have given how miserable Harry looked, but Ron’s eyes were digging into him with a concerning amount of askance to them. He had written all his friends pretty consistently over the summer but… Ron was still a concern. He would worry about that more later. 

“It was boring,” he lied and ran a hand through his hair. From somewhere below them he heard the door downstairs open. Damn - the meeting was over then. “Didn’t even get attacked by dementors once.” He said, sitting down by Hermione on a couch. Immediately the cushions softened, letting him sink further in. Hermione frowned at the change, looking down at where her cushion remained clumpy and hardened from years of disuse.

“How’s Theo?” Harry asked bitterly and Draco blinked. Oh. 

“Yeah…Uh, we broke up.” He said, rubbing the back of his neck with a shrug. Ron immediately sat up with wide eyes. There it was. 

“What? What happened?” He demanded and Draco sighed. Hermione patted his knee – whether with sympathy for the breakup or Ron he wasn’t sure. Harry’s eyes brightened a bit, widening before he nodded.

“We decided we didn’t want to be together anymore?” He told them. He didn’t really want to get into the whole thing. He _couldn’t_ get into the whole thing. The walls of Grimmauld Place shifted from a dark navy to Draco's favorite shade of green, perhaps sensing his distress. Hermione stared around them, bewildered while Ron barely batted an eye. Harry didn't seem to notice as his gaze fixed on Draco's face.

“So was it mutual or what?” He asked and Draco groaned. He kind of thought he had lucked out with being disowned sometimes. It saved him from more conversations just like this – though with less homophobia. 

“So. Right.” Draco muttered and sat up to peg Ron with what he hoped was a terrifying glare, “Do not freak out, okay?” He said and when all three of them nodded, sighed. “Theo just… likes someone else. We thought it would be better if we called it off early.” He explained and for a second all was silent before –

“He _what?”_

“Likes who? Don’t tell me it’s bloody Pansy-”

“Oh, fuck him.”

Draco only shrugged in return. He tried to offer a small smile to keep them from escalating the conversation, but knew it fell short. He didn’t want to get into the thick of it. Breakups, as it turned out, hurt… a lot. It was for the best though. At least that’s what he told himself. 

“I’m going to break his nose,” Ron vowed with that expression of a hardened warrior that only a friend of Harry James Potter could have. “Then I’ll choke him with his scarf.” 

“Ronald,” Hermione said disapprovingly, “That’s a little-”

“I think this all depends on how this mystery person is,” Harry interrupted, “I mean, obviously he’s lowered his standards,” he said with a respectful nod towards Draco. He snorted. Thanks. “But if he went for… I don’t know. Tristam or something, I could maybe get over that.” He reasoned and Ron gave a small hum. “But Montague or Pansy? We have to jinx him.” 

“Yeah, we have to.” Ron said pointing at Harry with a firm nod. Draco turned to Hermione for help, but she seemed to also be mulling over Harry’s words. Right. This was too much for him.

“Arthur!” He called out “Could you explain to me muggle lights again?” He asked, pushing his way out the door. From somewhere downstairs there was the hush of adults speaking and an excited squeak. 

“Ronald must have said something.” He heard Molly whisper as Draco jogged down the stairs. Arthur smiled brightly at him as he rounded the corner, seemingly undeterred by Draco’s obvious scheme. From somewhere above he heard the other three whispering – no doubt mulling over what he had just told them. 

The rest of the night went as expected. More arguments from Harry surrounding the Order of the Phoenix. Sirius wanted them to be let in on the knowledge. Molly was adamantly against it. Harry was pissed about Fudge calling him a liar in the prophet. You know. Typical things. 

Only… Draco watched Harry carefully. There was something off about him. He had always had a temper, sure, but now it seemed like a constant thing. Like if someone uttered one more word at the table he might just blow the whole thing apart.

“Here, let me.” Draco said as he leaned over to grab the dishes. Andromeda smiled at him softly. “I don’t mind,” he added to Molly. “I think better when I do them by hand.” He added, stacking the plates. Hermione gave him a suspicious look - no doubt, she was wondering if he had ever volunteered to do a chore in his entire life. Harry still seemed too upset to really think too much on the matter as Draco walked into the kitchen. 

Kreacher on the other hand... was a little miffed.

"Master Draco," he said, bowing lowly as he entered the room, "If I may-"

"No, no," Draco told him, watching with slight amusement as Kreacher froze, "I would like to do this." He said. The house elf continued looking at him - eyes narrowing slightly. Draco bit back a chuckle. It had been awhile since he had given any house elf an order... he tended to avoid the ones at Hogwarts so Hermione wouldn't get riled up. He glanced over his shoulder to make sure she wasn't listening. "Though I would like you to go upstairs and feed Harriet for me... please." He added, "Then perhaps start cleaning up the drawing room. Honestly, Kreacher. Have you seen this house?" He asked lightly. 

Kreacher sniffed.

"There has been no blood worth keeping my mistress' home in order for quite some time," he said and then looked Draco over with consideration, "You are of good breeding," he noted with a nod, "My mistress would be pleased."

"Yes, I spoke with her portrait," Draco said absently, "I think she's the reason this house has been so kind to me." He said, thinking of how the rooms always seemed to be the right temperature or sheets softening under his touch. "She would be my... Great aunt?" He said, wrinkling his nose as he tried to think of the exact relationship. She was an aunt of some sort, probably. "My grandfather was her brother." he decided.

Kreacher bowed his head.

"Very good," he told him, "I am sorry my master has trapped you here." He added with a scowling look towards where Sirius was still in the dining room. Draco chuckled, "I will complete your orders." He added. Draco nodded. Hermione would throttle him if she knew he was doling out chores, but honestly. Kreacher needed something to do anyways. Most house elves weren’t like Dobby. There was a resounding pop as he vanished. Draco went back to the dishes.

“Hey,” Ron greeted quietly as the others walked back upstairs, “I need to talk to you.” He said and Draco looked over from where he had dumped the dishes in the sink. The others were still in the dining room, now whispering among one another. “I didn’t say anything to Harry and Hermione. Didn’t want to freak them out,” he explained, “But… where were you this summer?” 

“What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean,” Ron told him firmly, “You went completely off the grid for months. I asked around. Theo said you left for some trip and he didn’t know where…” He trailed off, blue eyes digging into him. “I wrote Andromeda and she never responded. My mom said she’s barely seen her all summer. Your letters were… off. Now you just show up like nothing happened?” He asked and grabbed his shoulder. “What’s going on?”

Draco laughed.

“Voldemort came back,” Draco told him as Ron flinched at the name, “We laid low in case he came looking for us, Gingerbread. That’s all.” He said. Relief played on Ron’s face.

“That’s all?”

“That’s all.” Draco promised and handed him a clean dish. “Now stop worrying about me and start worrying about the human reductor curse over there.” He said with a jerk of his head in the direction where Harry went. Ron made a face.

“I mean, it’s got to have been a rough summer… then with the dementors and, well, his aunt and uncle.” He said. Draco nodded. He had hoped with Voldemort back they would have found somewhere better to go… apparently not. Apparently it took a dementor attack to get him out of that hellhole. “Are you sure you’re okay?” Ron asked, putting a hand on his shoulder, “With Theo and all?” He asked. 

“Do you know me to be a particularly emotional person, Ron?” He asked and then looked at where Harriet was curled on the counter. Kreacher must have already fed her then. He was quick, “Harriet. Tell him.” Draco said, reaching out so she could curl around his wrist.

“Fair enough,” Ron said and gently pushed him, “I’ll have Harry interrogate the snake later.”

“Hilarious.” Draco said with a slight shake of his head as Ron left. If he had hoped for any peace to actually do the dishes it was quickly whisked away by Sirius slipping in the moment Ron left. He gave his cousin a wary look. 

“Oh, if dear old Lucius could see you now.” He said and jumped up on the counter, “Blink twice if Andromeda has the imperius curse on you.” He told him. Draco scoffed before lightly splashing him. Sirius smiled again, but something about it seemed sad. “She told me.” He added. 

Ah… right. He figured.

“Any advice?” 

“Stop being an idiot?” He suggested and shook his head, “You’re fifteen. And, yes, I get that I’m being hypocritical, but I’m a little confused as to how all of this came about.” He added, fixing Draco with a rather intense gaze. The house shifted at Sirius' voice - the water Draco was using grew cold against his hands. He sighed and turned the sink off.

“It’s a little too late for that. Dumbledore walked me through it… Also, nobody else can know. I need to prepare.” He said, rubbing the back of his neck. Sirius looked at him for a long time.

“For what exactly?” He asked. Draco stopped in the middle of washing off a dish. He had been trying vehemently to ignore the feeling of food beneath his fingers. Gross and wet and sticky… now it felt like the only thing he could focus on. “You have three years left of school. Focus on that-”

“You mean if Voldemort doesn’t come for us all by then?” He asked, letting the plate fall from his hands back into the water with a clatter. “Or should I wait until after he murders my parents?” He asked, looking directly in front of him. “Harry said he was… he was angry in the graveyard. I bet he might just kill them for me getting sorted into Gryffindor.” He mumbled and turned to look at him. “Besides, I thought you trusted Dumbledore. Even if you didn’t know what he was doing.” He said. Sirius rolled his eyes.

“That’s what Remus said when he put me in this damn house.” He sighed. Draco looked around.

“Eh, it’s a bit outdated, but I think it’s nice.”

“Oh yeah? You like the mounted house elf heads in the hall?”

“Very pureblood. Inspired.” Draco told him with a grin. Sirius’ smile widened for a moment before giving him a small shove. “Seriously though - and don’t make that stupid pun!” He added with a firm look at his cousin. “Dumbledore thinks it’s a good idea for me to have a good disguise if the others come for me.” He explained, “That’s it. I promise.” 

It wasn’t a lie. Not exactly. That’s what Dumbledore told him. Draco just didn’t believe him. Neither did Sirius if his expression was anything to go by. He seemed to accept the answer anyways. Putting the last plate away, he splashed some more water at him. 

“You’re a brat!” Sirius yelled after him as he left the room with a laugh. The others were all upstairs - Ginny playing with a small toy snitch as Harry paced around the room. It was oddly silent. Probably due to how awkward dinner had gone. 

“Do you think I could pull that sword out of the sorting hat again?” 

Harry stared at him. In fairness, it was the first thing Draco had said upon entering the room. Ron and Hermione both sighed in unison. They had heard Draco’s plan previously and were not as impressed, but whatever. Draco didn’t care.

“Probably, why?” Harry said and Draco nodded.

“I want to pull it out during the sorting ceremony and scare all the first years.” He explained. A smile hinted at Harry’s lips. “Come on,” he said, throwing himself in one of the empty chairs. “You and I need to practice for your hearing.” He said. Harry frowned.

“Practice?”

“Trust me,” Draco said, “I’m an expert on hearings. My father went to enough of them… both as prosecutor and defendant.” He said and Ron gave a slight ‘well-there-you-go-then’ nod. “Those assholes are ruthless.”

“I… maybe, but they can’t just ignore the truth.” Harry said. Ah. Well. Wrong again. Harry’s frown deepened at Draco’s expression. “Can they?”

“Let’s see. Mr. Potter, are you aware that you aren’t allowed to use magic outside of school?” Draco asked as he got up, crossing his arms over his chest. Harry shifted uneasily. 

“Um, yes, but-”

“And you used it anyway?”

“Yes, but only because-”

“And this is your… second time using magic outside of school, correct?” Draco asked, moving away to pace up and down the room. Harry bristled. 

“It is-”

“So you’ve received a previous disciplinary warning and you still decided to cast a… patronus was it? In plain view of a muggle neighborhood?”

“Yes-”

“To which question? The patronus or the muggles?” Draco asked and when Harry opened his mouth, waved him away. “Nevermind. You’re clearly mixing your stories up as we speak.”

“I am _not_.” Harry said, fists clenching. “Let me just-”

“Ladies and gentleman. He has admitted to using magic outside of school twice. What are we still doing here?” He asked the room. Hermione fixed him with a stern look. “And let’s not forget that shortly after the first incident that he drove a _flying car_ to Hogwarts. I think it’s clear that this boy has recklessly endangered our existence enough times-”

“I have not!” 

“You, Mr. Potter, are a danger to yourself and others,” Draco told him, spinning around to face him. Harry’s face was bright red with anger, fingers twitching as he glared up at him. “I mean, we have more than enough proof. Going off after Sirius Black his third year? Sneaking his name into the Goblet of Fire? Please. And let’s not forget he has decided to continue this game of fame by saying the Dark Lord himself as risen-”

“Okay, I get it!” Harry shouted, standing up to kick the wall. Draco clicked his tongue. “So I’m screwed?” 

“No-” Hermione began.

“Didn’t you blow up your aunt too?”

“ _Draco!”_ Hermione groaned. Oh. Yeah. He raised his hands in surrender. He was just pointing out a potential problem. “Harry, it’s going to be fine. Dumbledore won’t let you get expelled.” She said. Draco froze. 

Dumbledore. He hadn’t considered - no. Nevermind. He wasn’t thinking about that.

Except he definitely was thinking about it a few days later when Harry actually went to his hearing. Draco wasn't sure how that would work out... Dumbledore ignoring Harry. For whatever reason, Harry quite liked Dumbledore. Draco supposed he couldn't blame him. It wasn't like the guy knew many reasonable adults. Perhaps (by his standards) Dumbledore was - dare he say it - _rational_. Hermione, of course, was starstruck by Dumbledore's written greatness with his ex-boyfriend (oh, come _on_ \- he and Grindelwald definitely dated) while Ron seemed to just like him because he didn't give out punishments and helped them win the House Cup a lot.

Whatever their reasoning may be for why they didn't think Dumbledore was the equivalent of a human warning sign - they all trusted him.

Draco supposed he had to trust the man to an extent as well. However, there was always a point where you turned against even those you trust. Ultimately, Draco's loyalty did not lie with Albus Dumbledore. It was a mutual understanding that made this summer work as well as it did. Draco had his goals and plans while Dumbledore had his. They would both use each other to get what the other wants. It was fine.

The problem was Draco was fifteen and Dumbledore was well over a hundred. One of them had a _bit_ more experience than other, which meant Draco was usually three steps behind and fumbling to keep up. It had him overthinking everything. Should Draco follow his lead? If Dumbledore said Harry shouldn't know then... maybe Harry _shouldn't_ know the truth...

Dumbledore said keeping his distance was what was best for Harry. Perhaps he was right. Draco should just keep his mouth shut and do what he was supposed to.

Then again, what the Hell did Dumbledore know about what was best for Harry? He left him with the Dursleys and hired a bloody Death Eater last year.

“Draco, what on _Earth_ happened to your trunk?” Hermione asked, pulling Draco out of his thoughts. His - ? Shit. Draco grimaced. He knew he had forgotten to do something. Stupid. Hermione frowned, running a hand over the scratched and ruined leather on the side. 

“Crookshanks probably got it,” Ron grimaced as he walked in and solemnly looked at the state of Draco’s trunk. Hermione gasped in outrage. “Just saying.”

“It was Harriet, actually.” Draco said, “She got cross with me and decided doing _that_ was worth losing all of her teeth.” He scoffed. Hermione blinked. “Don’t worry, they grow back pretty quickly.” He added. Harriet popped up to bare her teeth to further demonstrate her point from Draco’s bed. He grinned at her. It was nice to have someone back him up on his lying.

“What on Earth did you do to piss her off so badly?” Ron said, looking a bit concerned.

“I wouldn’t let her eat Pig.” Draco told him and Ron put a hand over his chest at the mention of his owl. He turned to stare at Harriet who only hissed in return. 

“Why can’t you lot just let me have a pet?” He complained and turned to where Hedwig was minding her own business, “Has she tried to eat you?” He asked. Hedwig blinked a few times before turning to Harriet as if considering. Then she gave a small hoot. “Ridiculous.” Ron muttered. Draco laughed and put his hand behind his back, internally praying nobody noticed the bandages around his fingers.

* * *

Harry wasn’t expelled.

Not that Draco thought for a second that he would be. Not Harry bloody Potter with his ridiculous hair and inability to have consequences for his actions. Still, it was nice to have confirmation that he wasn’t about to be hauled off to Azkaban and that they could open their letters from school in peace. Well, maybe not in peace. George, Fred, and Ginny made sure of that as they hopped around chanting praises at Harry for having gotten off scot-free. 

Rolling his eyes, he looked down at his new list of books for the semester. Andromeda probably would want to get them a bit early this year considering she was visiting Nymphadora this week… 

He paused that thought when he noticed a small flash of red caught his eye. He glanced around before shaking his letter a bit. A quill fell out, fluttering to the floor. He leaned over to pick it up, a hint of exasperation playing in the back of his mind. He glanced at the bottom of the letter and sure enough… gold ink was written neatly at the bottom of the list. 

_To keep in touch._

....right. Draco may not like Dumbledore, but he would admit the man was tragically smart. Giving a slight shake of his head, he placed the quill with the rest of his things before glancing back down at the letter to see that the golden ink had disappeared. He turned to see if Ron or Harry had noticed anything, but both had gone eerily silent. 

Then Draco noticed the badge in his hand. Oh. He waited for some reaction other than shock as the twins peered over Ron’s shoulder. Harry’s eyes were a bit wide as Ron handed it over. 

“I knew it!” Hermione shrieked from the doorway with an identical badge in her own hand. Harry jumped and quickly shook his head, shoving the badge back towards Ron. Hermione blinked a few times. 

Draco stared a bit at them all in horror. Sure, he was a little taken aback by Ron making prefect - especially when the Hermione decision was such an obvious choice - but why were they acting _that_ surprised _?_ He turned to Harry. He, at least, knew what Ron had seen in the Mirror of Erised to know that this should properly be celebrated… but Harry also looked like he had been punched in the face. 

Ugh. He had to do _everything_ around here.

“Why are you all acting stupid?” Draco asked, crossing his arms over his chest, “I could have told you Ron was going to be prefect our second year.” He sniffed. Puzzled eyes all fell towards him. “Come on. He’s been dealing with this sort of stuff for years now. Who had to worry about Lockhart when that tunnel collapsed? Who got us through McGonagall’s chess set? Who figured out how to do a levitation spell to knock a troll out? Who found out the first task was dragons? Who nearly lost his leg trying to keep Sirius from getting Harry?” He said with a vague wave of his hand, “Besides, if he can even exist in a family _this_ bloody big he’ll be a real natural at keeping half of Gryffindor tower up to code.” He rolled his eyes. Ron’s shock wavered a moment into an air of uncertainty. 

“...yeah?” He asked. Draco narrowed his eyes.

“What? You think I’m wrong?” He challenged and Ron quickly shook his head. “Good. Tell your mother. You too.” He added to Hermione who quickly turned to Harry to ask if she could use Hedwig. Fred and George had already apparated as Ron scrambled out. Draco waited a full three seconds before he heard shrieking. Molly was excited then. He smiled a bit before turning to where Harry was staring at the ceiling. Draco didn’t say anything. By this point, he knew Harry well enough to know that while his first instincts were sometimes something prick-ish that he would usually talk himself through being… well. Very… Harry and… you know, sweet.

Sure enough, Draco could see a hint of a scowl at his lips before it morphed into something snarkier and then, inevitably, shame. He shook his head, taking a deep breath as he sat back up. His eyes swept over the room, freezing when he saw Draco. Did he think he had left with the others?

“Ron has earned that,” He finally said and Draco gave a small smile before nodding. “You and I cause too much trouble.” He added as an afterthought. Draco bit back a grin. That was probably true… Draco might be an unwilling participant in some of those adventures, but he had always been there to ensure it was a spectacular mess.

“I would be _furious_ if you got to be prefect right after you almost got expelled.” He said and Harry gave a weak smile that seemed to wither away when his eyes fell to Draco’s hands. 

“What happened?” He asked, grabbing them lightly. Draco went to pull away, but Harry’s grip tightened around his wrist before he tugged the bandages off in one movement. “What the Hell?” He asked, bewildered as he looked at the bloody and marred cuts between each of Draco’s fingers.

“Yeah,” Draco said and took his hand back to re-wrap it as calmly as he could, “I experimented with something of Andromeda’s. Didn’t end well for me.” He lied easily. Harry seemed to buy it as he scoffed, rubbing his own hands in sympathy. 

“I thought you were training to be a healer,” he said and Draco scowled at him. “Just saying! Why does it look so bad?”

“Magical wounds take a bit longer to heal - _and_ I can’t use magic outside of school. A fact you should know considering you _just_ had a whole hearing about it-”

“Alright, point taken.” Harry snorted, running his hand through his hair. He grimaced at the door. “Hey… when we get back to school. Could… you, um, make me a sleeping draft or something?” He asked. Draco tilted his head. “Just… I’ve… you know, after last year with… everything. I haven’t been sleeping well.” He said slowly, eyes falling to the floor.

“Nightmares.” Draco translated. Harry flinched. “I can fix that for you,” he said and internally felt a swell of concern. “Is it just the graveyard or other things?” He asked, trying to sound casual. Harry paused. Then, as if unable to hold it in any longer, he spilled everything.

Some of it seemed like normal trauma. The other ones though… Draco pursed his lips. 

“Well,” Draco said when he was done and turned to look over Harry seriously. “I have good news and bad news for you,” he said and Harry raised an eyebrow. “The good news is that I’m willing to rid you of these nightmares that so plague you… for a price.” He said and Harry narrowed his eyes. “Don’t be scared-”

“Shut up.” Harry said moodily, “What do you want?”

“I’m trying to figure out why healers can’t fix eye damage,” Draco explained and poked Harry’s glasses pointedly. “You, Dumbledore, McGonagall, Percy - _why_ do you all have glasses? According to Hermione there’s a procedure to fix muggles eyes. We should have something!” He said and Harry reared back. 

“You are _not_ experimenting with my eyes!”

“Aw, come on. Where’s that Gryffindor courage? Listen, I think I can maybe even make it so you have something like Moody’s eye-”

“No!” Harry said and bolted off the bed as if Draco might attack him. “What even got you on this?”

“Neville and I were talking about it,” Draco shrugged, “He was saying some plants give you enhanced eyesight and then we got thinking if we could repair damaged - stop being a _baby!”_ He interrupted himself when Harry continued to edge away.

“Now you’re being a bad influence on Neville?!”

“Arguably, he’s a bad influence on me,” Draco said stoically, “He also pointed out that dark magic has irreversible effects so maybe if we used it medically-”

“ANDROMEDA!” Harry yelled and scrambled towards the door. Draco ran over to tackle him, “DRACO IS TRYING TO EXPERIMENT ON ME USING DARK MAGIC!” He yelled and everyone went silent downstairs. Draco heard a sigh.

“...Sirius, can you deal with that?” Andromeda asked and Draco snorted, pushing Harry away now that he brought them both tumbling to the ground with a bang. 

“Great, now Andromeda is sending Sirius.” He told Harry who paused. 

“What? How do you know?” He asked. It was then that Draco remembered he probably shouldn’t have been able to hear that. He flicked Harry’s knee.

“I’m smarter than you.” He said and it was then that the door opened to reveal a curious looking Sirius. Draco turned to grin at Harry who stared between his godfather and Draco with a look of betrayal.

“If anyone will be experimenting on anyone,” Sirius greeted, leaning on the doorframe, “It will be me on Snivellus.” 

* * *

Sadly, nobody experimented on anyone. Though Sirius did experiment with how dumb he could be by joining them to the train station. Draco was a little annoyed by it, but it was hard to keep up his air of disapproval by how excited the giant dog seemed to be at being out his parents’ house. Harry seemed equal parts worried and thrilled, smiling a bit as he scratched behind Sirius’ ears affectionately. 

“Be safe,” Andromeda was saying as they entered the platform. “Don’t do anything foolish and…” She trailed off, running a thumb absently over his cheek. “Remember what we talked about.” She said, voice lowering slightly. “There are some things best kept secret, but if you need help. Get help.” She reminded him. 

Draco nodded.

“I think I’m supposed to be the helpful one this year.” He said and Andromeda’s gaze flicked to the other Hermione, Harry, and Ron warily before looking down at Draco’s injured hands.

“You can always change your mind.”

“I’m sure people said that when you decided to marry Ted too.” Draco said quietly and Andromeda pursed her lips. “Dumbledore won’t let anything happen to me. I want to do this, Andromeda. I feel like I’m… supposed to.” He said slowly, letting the words fall off his tongue. “You just worry about keeping Remus in line.” He added, "If we lose him then Snufflepuff over here will go off the rails." He added with a nod at where Sirius was chasing his own tail.

Remus had been in and out of their home for awhile now. Andromeda was determined to keep him in one place though… despite whatever weird relationship was developing between him and Nymphodora. 

“That I can do,” She grumbled and kissed his cheek. Draco rolled his eyes, but tolerated it… only because it was Andromeda though, “Bye, darling. Have a good semester.” She sighed. Draco gave her a warm grin before walking over to where the others were. Sirius wagged his tail as a subtle goodbye before they all filed into the train. Harry waved back everyone before gesturing them all to follow towards an empty compartment. 

“Oh,” Hermione said and shifted slightly as she gave a quick glance at Ron, “We, um, have to sit with the prefects-”

“Right.” Harry quickly cut her off. Draco inwardly sighed. Harry was… well, he didn’t _like_ being in the midst of attention. He didn’t expect to be the center of everyone’s world either. However, despite his ridiculously humble attitude, he was _used_ to being prioritized. At least in the wizarding world. No doubt this was uncomfortable for him. “That’s… fine.” 

“Hello? I’m still here.” Draco said and snapped his fingers in front of Harry’s face, “Or are you too blind to notice I am _not_ a prefect?” He asked. Part of him felt a little bad at how Harry flushed… the other part was satisfied he had gotten a genuine reaction. “Come on.” He said, pulling him away with a wave at the other two. Ron returned it sadly, not looking too thrilled at joining the other prefects himself. 

In the end, they had to share a compartment with Luna Lovegood. She was an odd girl… Draco mainly knew about her via his family research he had done over the summer. After the Neville thing he went ahead to see what other business his family had been involved in. Turns out, after Pandora Lovegood’s death, his father decided to spend his efforts appealing to the ministry that their family should not get her life insurance money on account that the backfiring of her spell had been purposeful rather than an accident.

Yeah. Draco hadn’t been too impressed either. 

In any case, he was going to be good to her. Luna seemed pleased by the company. She spent most of the ride telling Draco and Harry about wrackspurts. It was a lot of work to hold back his sarcastic comments, but he did well... for the most part. Kind of.

Listen, he _tried_. He couldn't help it that she was a pile of crazy in the midst of insanity.

“...she’s interesting.” Harry said when Luna left to wander up and down the train for a while. He looked deeply disturbed, which… was probably a fair reaction upon meeting Luna. Draco shrugged, leaning back in the seat to think for a moment. “Hey.” Harry said and tapped his leg. 

“Hm?”

“What was with you this summer?” 

Draco’s eyes snapped open. Oh, come _on._

“What?”

“Your letters. I wanted to ask earlier, but figured I should wait until Ron and Hermione weren’t around. You sounded so… formal.” He said, wrinkling his nose. Draco swallowed back a groan. He was not doing well with this. At all. Was there anybody that wasn't suspicious of him? They hadn't even gotten to school yet!

“I was in hiding.” He said, going with the same spiel he had told Ron. It seemed to work as Harry deflated a bit, lips pursing as he mulled out the window. Draco considered. “I, uh, was thinking of some useful things to know. Now that...he’s back.” He continued slowly. Harry glanced over at him.

“Like what?”

“Have you heard of occlumency?” He asked. Harry shook his head. “It’s like… keeping people from seeing into your mind.” He said and watched as Harry stiffened, straightening up slightly as his eyes seemed to sharpen onto Draco.

“Reading your mind?” He asked, “That’s a thing?”

“Well, reading is a loose term…” Draco said with a wary shrug, “But yeah. That’s the idea. Voldemort was famous for it. It was how he got a lot of his information.” He said. Harry pursed his lips at that. It was a disturbing idea to say the least. He watched a bit as Harry seemed to mull over the idea for a few seconds before continuing. “You want me to teach you?” He asked.

“To keep people out of my head? Yes,” he said and Draco snorted at how quick he answered, “How do you know about this?” He asked and Draco tilted his head, “Right, right. Pureblood upbringing. Whatever.” He grumbled. Draco laughed. In truth, he wasn’t an expert on it… but between Severus and Andromeda, he had some pretty good teachers. 

“Good guess,” he told him and leaned forward slightly. “Want to start now?” He asked. There was nothing else to do. Harry seemed to think similarly because he gave a nonchalant shrug. “Okay. Close your eyes. Try not to think or feel anything-”

“How’s that even possible?”

“Shut up and do it.” Draco said. Harry made a face, but did as he was told.

It was… weird actually. Looking at Harry’s face in his attempt to be expressionless. He hadn’t ever realized just how expressive Harry truly was. It was almost like looking at him for the first time. His hair looked really soft, actually. Skin smooth other than the scar on his forehead, creating white lines where it sat. Now that he was looking closer, he could actually see a sprinkling of freckles normally blended into his skin-

“What now?” He asked, jolting Draco from his internal tangent. He shook his head - dismissing the thoughts entirely. 

“Right, um, sorry.” He said and quickly reoriented his thoughts to occlumency. 

That was how they spent the rest of the train ride. Harry wasn’t a natural by any means… but he also wasn’t hopeless. It was a good start. The whole thing actually put him into a pretty decent mood up until they got towards the carriages. 

Thestrals. 

Draco reached out, lightly stroking one as Luna and Harry discussed the creatures with the others in hushed tones. Draco smiled a bit at one. They were definitely ugly creatures… but they had a sort of tranquility to them that he appreciated.

“You can see them?” Harry asked, sounding a bit perplexed. Draco shrugged and got into the carriage. “...have you always been able to see them?” He tacked on. Draco bit the inside of his cheek. 

“Does it matter?” He asked and tightened his cloak around him. Harry looked like he might say something else, but went silent as a group of Slytherins brushed by. Zoe and Tristam gave them both waves before getting in their carriage. Draco could see Theo on the other side, looking directly ahead.

Ouch. 

“He probably just didn’t see us,” Harry said. Draco turned. He didn’t remember teaching him any legilimency. 

“Just get in the carriage,” he said, shoving him slightly. Harry scoffed and pulled him up into the seat next to him. His eyes still warily fell over the thestral. Neville also joined them on their way over. Draco tapped his fingers on his knee. He hadn’t actually thought about seeing Theo again… not after this summer.

Maybe it was better for them not to speak.

Of course, this was short lived. The second they entered the Great Hall, a hand pulled his wrist and jerked him to the side. 

“Malfoy.”

“Nott.”

“Weasley sent me a howler,” Theo informed him with a sigh, “Also, Granger-”

“I’m sorry,” Draco interrupted before he could finish. “I hadn’t really meant to let them know-”

“I’m a little more concerned with why the Hell they think _I_ broke up with _you_ ,” Theo said sharply. Oh… right. That. Draco inwardly cringed. He maybe should have considered that Theo still went to school with them before lying, “Because I _liked someone else?_ Is that how it happened? Because I don’t remember it happening like that. Do you remember it happening like that?” He asked, poking a finger at his chest.

Stupid, stupid, stupid, _stupid._

“Theo-”

“You better explain to me what exactly happened, Draco.” He began and Draco felt a wave of panic when he saw the others start filing in. Giving Theo a sharp nod, he moved to the Gryffindor table to where Harry was waiting with his eyes narrowed at Theo. “I _saw_ you-” Theo whispered and Draco spun back around.

“No. You didn’t.” He said firmly, meeting Theo’s eyes. “You didn’t see anything.” He said and pointed at him. “Anything.” He repeated and turned back to the table. Theo grabbed his arm. Before he could even react, Theo had already let go.

“We were just talking-” Theo began and Draco turned to find Ron and Hermione behind him, both looking equal parts annoyed and smug. 

“Careful, Nott.” Ron said, almost joyfully, “I would hate to give you detention.” He told him, pointing to the badge on his chest. Hermione didn’t say a word, but Draco could _feel_ her gaze burning into Theo. There was a horribly awkward pause before she jutted out her chin.

“The Slytherin table is over there.” She said firmly. Draco closed his eyes.

“Hermione-” He began, but was silenced by her turning the look onto him.

“Go sit down,” she interrupted. Draco blinked. She… was she talking to _him?_ Him? How-? “Before I give _you_ detention.” She tacked on and Draco spluttered. 

Before she did what now? Before she did _what?_

The audacity was really something else. In fact, he had a few choice words he might have thrown back if he wasn’t so shocked. There was a light pull on his arm as he felt himself led away from the absolute bullshit that was happening in front of him.

“Not worth it.” Harry said quietly. He turned back to look at them.

“She just-”

“Yep. I wouldn’t test her,” Harry agreed. Draco made a noise of _intense_ disagreement. “Draco, let it go.” He said and squeezed his arm. “Hermione doesn’t bluff.” He said. That was definitely true, but Draco also resented everything that just happened. Hermione would never actually take advantage of her newfound power to order him around.

“She can’t do that!”

“She can,” Harry said and clapped him on the shoulder. Draco tried to turn around again, but Harry yanked on his arm impatiently. “Look, she wouldn't normally, but we both know you wouldn’t walk away if Nott caused trouble-”

“ _Me?”_

“Yes, you.” Harry said, “I - hey.” He interrupted himself to frown at the front of the room. “She was at my hearing.” 

That at least got Draco’s attention. He momentarily stopped his internal rampage to stare over the table. Predictably, he was talking about the new DADA professor. Draco was reminded of a chihuahua (which was a type of dog that muggles would sometimes owned… because muggles often owned dogs. There’s a fun fact for you). In the sense that both the woman and a chihuahua were small, ugly, and intimidating in a strange way. 

As it turned out, he had a right to be intimidated.

Dolores Umbridge was… an interesting woman. She seemed familiar in a way. A blot of pink in an otherwise silver and green childhood. She was small, with a round face that always seemed caught between a smile and a sneer. Her wardrobe only appeared to contain frilly, pink clothes and bows. 

Still, she appeared… friendly enough. At first. Things quickly went downhill after their first class when Harry got himself detention after releasing his full snark capabilities on her. Draco on the other hand… uh, Draco got himself a friend? He wasn’t sure what to make of it. Umbridge seemed weirdly fond of him for some reason. It might be because he was the only one smart enough not to complain about her teaching techniques, but the way she watched him… It was weird.

“I don’t like the way she looks at you,” Hermione had told him one day, confirming his suspicions. “Like a cat.” 

“A _cat?”_ Draco had repeated. Harry grimaced, throwing down his books with a little more force than necessary.

“Well, she bloody likes cats so that makes sense,” he practically spit out, “I’ve seen her office. It’s full of stupid bloody cat decorations.” He added. Ron watched him for a moment before letting his gaze fall onto Draco. Did he know? Did _Umbridge_ know? She was from the ministry… she could find out. She could know. What if she knew? No. No, she couldn’t -

Stop. He needed to keep calm. Focus on other things. Normal things. Like classes. Hagrid had decided to show them thestrals, which was all very interesting. Draco was smart enough to play dumb when Hagrid introduced them.

“Are we supposed to be seeing something?” He had asked, ignoring Harry looking at him with a slight frown. Theo grimaced a bit, taking a step back as a few of the other Slytherins murmured to one another. Draco had forgotten he would be able to see them too. Most children of Death Eaters had seen death in one form or another. It was in the name after all. 

He pushed the thought away. Maybe that wasn’t what he needed to be focusing on either. He needed something more lighthearted. Like… Harry. 

Harry liked Cho. Cho Chang. 

Draco didn’t really know how to process _that_ piece of information. Was this how they all felt when he was with Theo? It was weird. Harry would occasionally watch her out of the corner of his eye, always flushing if she looked back at him. Sometimes she would watch him too, though with a bit of something else in her eyes that Draco couldn’t place. 

It was actually kind of a problem. You see, Draco had realized almost immediately that he didn't really like Cho. He wasn't sure why he didn't... not at first. Now though, he had two theories. The first is that he had some sort of old-fashioned patriarchal bigotry deep in his brain that was making him not like women. He was going to ignore the fact Hermione, Andromeda, Fleur, Ginny, Dora, Zoe, Sadie, McGonagall, and Gabrielle all existed because honestly? He kind of liked that better than the second theory.

In fact, they weren't even going to discuss the second theory. Nope - because he couldn't fix the second theory. Draco _could_ fix being a horribly sexist person. If he could overcome his views of muggles and muggleborns then he could overcome his other terribly bigoted thoughts.

Yep. That was what was happening. Gosh darnit. He would have to work on that.

And the _first_ step of overcoming such things was... aggressively supporting Cho Chang.

“You should ask her out,” Draco announced as he flopped down in front of Harry one morning. Harry choked on his porridge, eyes widening as he looked around them for a moment before spinning back towards Draco. 

“I don’t know what you mean.” He said and Draco rolled his eyes. He was such an idiot, this one. 

“Cho. Ravenclaw. You make gross heart eyes at her when we study in the library.” He clarified, buttering some toast. “Instead of being creepy you should go up and say ‘hey, would you like to get dinner some time?’ and be done with it.” 

“Draco,” Harry growled and leaned forward with his eyes flashing, “Lower your voice!”

“Salazar, you’re such a mess,” he observed and snorted, “Come on. It’s not like she’s going to say no.” He shrugged and there was a slight groan as Harry pinched his nose between his fingers. 

“I watched her ex-boyfriend die. I think that may make things a little weird.” 

Yeah. It was a little weird. Why did she like him? Why did he like _her?_

“Coward.” Draco taunted instead, taking a bite of his toast. Harry sniffed, thoroughly offended by the comment. Draco grinned a bit at that before shaking his head. “Do you want me to do some research?” He asked, taking pity.

“Research?” Harry repeated and Draco raised a brow. 

“Of course. I have incredible stealth that allows me access to tons of secretive information… I am also learning legilimency and want someone to practice on.” He tacked on and Harry sighed. 

“No. You can’t just invade people’s minds to find out if they like somebody.” 

“Why not?” Draco frowned “I’ve learned loads of good stuff. For example, Zacharias Smith would ask me out if I was gay.” 

“You are?”

“He doesn’t know that,” Draco waved his hand dismissively “Also, Dean Thomas definitely has a thing for Ginny,” he clicked his tongue “But is kind of scared of Ron. Another fun fact: He also has a thing for Seamus.”

“You’re such a gossip.” Harry rolled his eyes. Draco shrugged, finishing off his toast with a swig of orange juice. 

“And you’re scared to ask a girl out,” he hummed “I can’t believe the savior of the wizarding world - no, no the Chosen One who has defeated the Dark Lord at the ages of one, eleven, twelve, and fourteen is-”

“I get it.” Harry moaned “I can stab a snake with a sword, but I can’t tell Cho I like her.” He sighed and tilted his head a bit “How did you ask out Theo?” He frowned and Draco shrugged.

“He asked me out.”

“So you haven’t even done it.”

“Yeah, but I could if I wanted to.” 

“Really?” Harry asked with a scoff and jutted out his chin. “And you wouldn’t be even a little nervous?” He poked. Draco scowled. Was his honor being put to the test? Draco never had been one to not prove a point. Giving Harry a wicked grin he turned around. 

“Oi! Smith!” He yelled, “Come over here!” He called and watched as the blonde whipped around to meet his gaze. A group of Hufflepuffs giggled as he stumbled over, almost tripping to get to Draco’s side.

“What?” He asked, as if he hadn’t just made himself look like an idiot. Draco wasn’t overly familiar with the boy. He knew he was proud and condescending – two traits he often admired in others. Draco smiled brightly up at him. 

“I’m heading to Hogsmeade this weekend and was wondering if you would join me?” He asked and enjoyed the shock that flickered on the other boy’s face. It went from alarm to panic to suspicion all within five seconds. 

“As…friends or…?” He began cautiously and Draco tilted his head a bit at that, biting his lip in a way that made Zaharias take a small step towards him. 

“What would you prefer?” 

“Not as friends,” he said with a nod “Um. I can meet you in the Great Hall at nine on Saturday?” He offered and Draco nodded, beaming up at him. “Great. I’ll see you then.” He said, the illusion of confidence starting to build up again. Draco laughed as he left, turning back to see Harry gaping. 

“You kill me, you know that? Voldemort won’t need to finish me off. Blimey.” He muttered “Ron is going to pitch a fit.” He added, pointing his fork in the direction Smith had walked off. Draco wrinkled his nose. 

“We’ll keep it a secret.” 

“You think Smith will keep it quiet?” Harry mused and Draco glanced over his shoulder to see the boy in question haughtily gesturing over towards the Gryffindor table with a proud smirk on his face. 

“It probably won’t last long,” he said, “How’d this all start again? Oh, yes! Cho.” He smiled brightly. Harry sighed, pushing his food away.

“I have class.” 

“Oh, you go to that now?” Draco called after him. Harry flicked him off, gaining the attention of a stern McGonagall who marched after him - probably to give out a detention. Draco sighed as he left. 

Damnit. He did not want to go on a date Saturday. 

* * *

Life hated him.

Draco knew he hadn’t started out as a stellar person, but...come on. He didn’t deserve _this_.

“Draco, I’m dead serious. I’m about five seconds away from picking you up and taking you to Madam Pomfrey myself,” Harry said, perched on the side of his bed as he worriedly poked at Draco’s arm. It was so goddamn hot. He shifted, moving the covers away for a moment only for the temperature to suddenly drop so he freezing. Groaning, he yanked the sheets back up. Harry continued to watch, unimpressed with the display.

“I’m fine. Don’t need the hospital wing.” He whispered. He already knew what was wrong, actually. He just couldn’t really explain it to anyone else. Harry’s jaw tightened.

“She could probably fix you up within seconds,” Harry told him and absently brushed some hair out of his eyes. Wait. That actually felt really nice. He hummed, leaning into the touch.

”’s’kay. Just tired.” He sighed, closing his eyes contentedly. Harry grumbled something under his breath, but at least kept doing the hair thing. Draco moved in closer. He just needed... a bit of sleep... just a bit...

"What are you? Part dog?" Harry's voice asked and Draco's eyes flickered open to realize he had somehow moved closer to him, curled up by his leg. Ah. Right. That was embarrassing. Scowling, Draco tried to shove him off the by bed, but was too weak to do it. The amusement immediately left Harry's face. "Maybe I should get Ron and Hermione-"

"No!" Draco practically yelped and flinched when his head thrummed with pain. God, _not_ Ron and Hermione. Hermione might actually realize what was wrong and Ron... Ron might start out teasing him and saying Draco was just dying of a broken heart, but he also knew Ron had a very practical mind. He would come to the conclusion that Rita Skeeter's article last year hadn't been a lie and that Draco was slowly dying of his family's lineage magic.

 _Maybe you are,_ a voice whispered in the back of his mind, _you aren't really that clever. Are you really so sure what's happening to you? You just think you know. You think you know everything. You thought you were a good person up until about four years_ ago, a particularly nasty voice whispered to him. It was a voice he had occasionally heard before. It usually came about whenever Draco had a few moments of quiet in his mind. Normally, he might pull out an array of textbooks or potions or anything else to keep from confronting it, but now...

"Can you hand me some parchment?" Draco said, wincing as he sat up. Harry raised an eyebrow, " _Please_." He added.

"I'll make you a deal."

Oh, come _on_.

"What do you want?" Draco asked, sounding defeated even to his own ears. Harry reached over absently to put a hand to his forehead. Draco had no idea what that was supposed to do. He had seen Hermione do it a few times when someone was sick... was it some weird muggle remedy? That hardly seemed like a sufficient treatment when they apparently had machines to do all this marvelous medicine. He should ask Burbage about it.

"If I get you some parchment will you let me taking you the hospital wing?"

"If I'm not feeling better tomorrow, I will." Draco lied. It wasn't that he didn't trust Pomfrey's discretion - he did, truly - he just felt sure this would go away on its own soon enough. Harry sighed, but got up to cross the room. There was the crinkling of paper and then something was thrown at his face. Git.

Grabbing a quill and textbook by his bedside, Draco forced himself to hunch over so he could write. It had been a long time since he had a 'pureblood hissy fit' as Ron loved to call them, but Draco felt like he was entitled to occasionally lash out using his full-range of insults. He had gotten so much more muted over the years. Granted, it was because he more polite now, but also he kind of missed the creativity of figuring out the be way to insult someone.

 _Dear Snufflefuck or whatever the Hell we're supposed to call you now,_ he began. _What the Hell is this? I've been throwing up for over an hour, can't feel my toes, and my arms won't stop bloody itching. You didn't think you warn me? I'm not Remus Goddamn Lupin. I won't forgive you because you bloody smiled. You better tell me how to fix this or I swear to Salazar himself I am going to rip the cover off of your mother's portrait and tell her that you've kidnapped me to try and convert me into your nasty, bloodtraitor ways and every day that you don't write back I will send you a list of insults that might include, but are not limited to: you might be pureblood, but you're also pure bitch (pun intended, you goddamn mutt), it's amazing the dementors couldn't suck the dumbass out of you, your animagus form should have been a goldfish so that your IQ stays the same, I've recently learned that muggles have these awful things called 'Cabbage Patch Dolls' and I must say you are a stunning image of one, I'm going to get you a rememberall for Christmas so you won't forget that you're the bloody worst.  
_

_I know it is not my best work, but I'm also dying. So, please respond within a reasonable frame of time._

_Yours truly,_

_Draco_

Satisfied that his dismay on the situation shone through, he managed to get up only to be pushed back down by a rather exasperated Harry.

"You can use Hedwig," he said flatly, "If you go up to the owlery, you might die." He added and turned to where Harriet was sitting on the table next to him. There was a pause where they hissed back and forth before Harry frowned, eyes flicking to Draco.

"What did she say?" He asked tiredly.

"To hurry up and send the letter to Sirius before she bites me," he answered and tilted his head, "Why are you writing Sirius?"

"He's my cousin. Leave me alone." Draco snapped and- _Merlin_.How could anyone's scent be so strong? It was like stepping into a freaking meadow. The scent of flowers and grass and sun - it was _obnoxious._ He rolled over, burying his nose into his blankets to try mute it. 

It wasn't necessarily a bad smell. It was just... a lot and so distinctively _Harry_ that he just might lose his mind.

"Fine, fine," Harry murmured, "Since you asked so nicely," he added, tying the letter around Hedwig's leg. She gave a low hoot before taking off, diving from the tower before opening her wings to glide out towards the sky. Harry turned back to look him over. "Well, is there anything that would make you feel better?" He asked, coming back to towards the bed. Draco peered up at him.

"...can you get me peppermint biscuits from the kitchens?" He asked. Harry shrugged.

"Sure-"

"And tea?"

"Alr-"

"With milk and sugar?"

"Draco," Harry snorted and when he gave him the most pitiful look imaginable, sighed, "Fine. Just this once though because if you aren't fixed soon I'm getting Ron to drag you to the hospital wing." He said. Draco rolled his eyes. Please. As if any of them could get him to go anywhere he didn't want to. Besides, given how much of a _prat_ Harry had been to Ron and Hermione lately he doubted they would want to help him with anything. Draco was really impressed with their patience on the matter. Merlin knows that Draco and Harry had barely been able to keep their tempers down with one another lately. Draco grumbled as much into his pillow. "What was that?" Harry called as he headed out of the dormitory.

"Thank you!"

"Aw, you're _so_ welcome-"

"Sod off."

* * *

Luckily, his ailment didn't last too terribly wrong. As suspected, he was fine the next morning. Sirius had responded the following day.

_My favorite, dearest, most special baby cousin,_

_Ha._

_Lots of love,_

_Snufflefuck_

Draco had been fuming for a solid hour before another owl came by with a new letter, which had Sirius listing much more detailed instructions on how to avoid the matter. Draco was a bit indignant that nobody had warned him his _diet_ might need to change, but perhaps he should have thought to look that up himself. At least it looked like he could still stuff his face with Honeydukes... it just couldn't be within an hour from when he did his duties with Dumbledore. Fair enough, he supposed.

“Hey,” Hermione said and slammed down a few books, “Has Harry been acting strange to you?” She asked and pulled out more books from seemingly nowhere. Draco didn’t glance up from his potion. 

“I find everything about him strange. I think it has to do with him being forced to live in a cupboard. Harriet says he sometimes talks to himself.” Draco said. 

“You can’t understand Harriet,” Hermione told him and Draco shrugged. Whatever. They had a bond. Rolling her eyes, she took some of the valerian root he was using out of his hand. “I’m serious. He’s been acting off, hasn’t he?” She asked. Draco looked up. He had noticed, in truth. “Both of you-”

“Me?” Draco asked and threw up his hands. “What did I do? I’m just here to get an education. I thought you would understand.” He said with a slight pout. Hermione smiled at him with slight exasperation. 

“I just think that you’re probably really stressed about your parents with Voldemort being back,” she explained and reached out to grab his arm, “I know… we haven’t seen eye-to-eye in the past about them, but if you want to talk about it…” She said and tilted her head, waiting. Draco gave her a soft smile.

“I’m worried about them,” he admitted and took a long breath, “I don’t really know what’s going to happen. They’ll join him, probably, but… I’m not sure how I’ll fit in.” He said slowly, “He might kill them, Hermione.” 

“Not over where you’ve been _sorted_ , surely-”

“They’re going to think I’m just like Sirius, Hermione.” Draco said and fell back in his chair. “The fact my mother will have two traitors on her side of the family… it won’t be good.” He said, tapping his knee. Hermione pursed her lips.

“That sounds scary,” she said finally and then grabbed his hand, “But you do know there is nothing you can do, right?” she asked. Draco’s eyes snapped to her. He gave her a long look. Part of him wanted to spill the truth about this summer. About… everything. The decisions he made. What he knew about Voldemort. About _Harry_. If anyone could help it would be Hermione. 

“Yeah, I know,” Draco said instead, “I guess that’s the hard part.”

Hermione’s face flickered with relief. 

“I’m sorry.” She told him and pulled him into a tight hug. Draco closed his eyes. This… was really going to suck. When she pulled back he gave a tight smile.

“I’ll be okay,” he reassured her, “I always am… Harry will be too. He’s just dealing with a lot.” He said and sat up. “Which reminds me,” he groaned, “We have defense soon.” He said stretching a bit. Hermione groaned. Draco tried not to be amused by the idea of her _not_ wanting to attend class. Granted, Umbridge’s lectures weren’t really lectures but…. Well, he found it nice to get work for other classes done. 

“...I’m sick.” Harry grumbled when they went to collect him and Ron. He gave a sarcastic cough. “Might have to go to the hospital wing instead.” He muttered. Draco rolled his eyes and lightly nudged him with his foot. 

“If you would like I can personally ensure you have a reason to go to the hospital wing.” Draco told him and Ron rolled his eyes as he stood up, dragging Harry with him.

“You know what, Draco?” He asked, playfully flicking Draco’s shoulder. “I’m calling you on your bluff. It’s been five years and you haven’t actually followed through on a threat yet. Come on. Show us that great Malfoy - _Harry.”_ He yelped when Draco brought out his wand, “Blimey, we’re coming. Merlin.” He muttered. 

“It would be nice to have some proper defense lessons,” Hermione added as she leaned forward to fix Harry with a long look. 

“No,” he said shortly as he grabbed his bag, “I already _told_ you that I’m not giving defense lessons-”

“I still don’t get why you would go to Harry for defense lessons.” Draco grumbled. Ron clicked his tongue.

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because he fought bloody You-Know-Who and _lived-”_

“With _expelliarmus.”_ Draco snorted. He knew in reality that Harry was actually very talented in that field of magic. More so than anyone else in their year, probably. However, he had not forgotten Harry’s choice of spell last year. 

“When will you get over that?” Harry sighed as they rounded a corner towards their classroom.

“Hm? Oh, probably when I’m dead. Maybe even then. I’ll come back as a ghost to bring it up.” Draco told him. Harry sighed. “Hi everyone, I’m Harry and when confronted with life or death situations I just _disarm_ my opponent-”

“I mean, Voldemort can’t attack me without a wand.” Harry said. Draco closed his eyes.

“If _you_ could do wandless magic when you were eleven to trap Dudley dearest in a snake exhibit then I _think_ the Dark Lord, renowned and powerful wizard, can also do wandless magic, Harry.” He said as he walked into the classroom. He slammed his books down on his desk. “Just my thoughts on the matter.” He said dryly. Harry's jaw clenched as he leveled him with a cold look. Draco only shrugged in return, but figured he wouldn't push the matter if he was going to get _that_ look for his wisdom.

“I really think just… one solid punch would knock the smartass out of him,” Ron whispered to Harry. Draco sneered in return. “If you had let me do it sooner we would have saved so much time-”

“Everyday you live is a day I let you live.” Draco said solemnly. Hermione cleared her throat. “Everyday you live is a day Hermione and I let you live.” He rectified and Hermione sighed.

“Draco, _no-”_

Umbridge gave a slight cough to regain their attention. Draco gave her a bright smile before pulling out his potions essay. Another homework session for him. He thought he had almost gotten away with too… well, up until class ended.

“Mr. Malfoy, if you would stay back a moment.” 

Draco froze as he went to stow one of his books in his bag. From beside him Hermione frowned, her eyes flicking from him to where Umbridge stood in the front of the classroom.

“Of course, professor.” He answered and set his bag down. Hermione’s jaw set and she gave him a wary look. He returned it with a shrug, gesturing for her to grab Ron and Harry before they reacted. Harry was already flushed with anger, eyes practically wild with hatred as he glowered at the Umbridge. It took a few minutes for the rest of the students to leave. Draco couldn’t help but feel as though he had been left alone with a dragon. An ugly dragon. 

“Sit.” Umbridge said, flicking a chair up to the front of her desk. Draco cautiously walked up, politely nodding as he sat down. There were a couple seconds of silence in which Umbridge just looked at him. “I’m glad to finally meet you, Draco.” She finally smiled as if he hadn’t been in her class for the past few weeks. If this was a complaint about him doing work for other classes during her’s then it was a strange segway, “I’m well acquainted with your father. He speaks often of you.” 

Ah. 

“I somehow doubt that,” he told her, “I haven’t been in favor with him for a while.” He said and Umbridge made a sympathetic noise as she walked around the front of the desk, propping herself on it. 

“So I’ve heard,” She sighed “It’s amazing how little control of our future we really have. To think, a hat put you here.” She clicked her tongue and leaned forward to pat Draco’s knee “But it is imperative you remember there are aspects of your life you can control. Your… friends for example.” She began and Draco gave a sharp intake. “Are Potter, Granger, and Weasley the best way to get back your family name?” She asked. 

Draco gave a breathy laugh at the question. Umbridge tilted her head at him. 

“No, miss.” He answered, raising his eyes to meet hers “However, the moment I was sorted there was no way I would ever get back into my parents’ favor. I’ve accepted this and I’ve accepted my friends.” He told her. 

“Admirable, surely,” Umbridge agreed “But they hold you back. I want you to reach your full potential, Draco. You’ve been handicapped by this house, but that doesn’t mean you can’t achieve all you are meant to.” She said “If not for your father, your mother. I can only imagine how much you miss her.” 

“My mother?” Draco repeated and his heart ached. Just the mention of her almost broke him. He would never admit it, but he often struggled without her. His mother had always been a source of strength for when he had none. Learning to cope without it the past few years felt nearly impossible. 

“Do you wish to speak with her?” Umbridge asked him carefully “That can be arranged-”

“Professor Umbridge.” 

Jumping, Draco whipped around to see McGonagall in the doorway, lips pressed in a thin line. 

“Minerva.” The Umbridge beamed, though her hand clenched by her side at the sigh of the other woman. “What brings you here?”

“Mr. Malfoy, please go to your next class,” McGongall said flatly and when he hesitated, narrowed her gaze. “Now.” 

Not needing to be told twice, he grabbed his bag and slung it over his shoulder. He paused at the doorway, turning back to Umbridge with a long look. Could she really bring him to his mother? She could be using him to turn against Harry. Umbridge smiled tightly at him and he gave a curt nod, hoping he hid the mixture of emotions on his face well. 

McGonagall's eyes followed him until he was out of sight. 

As expected, McGonagall told on him to Severus. He wasn’t sure why he hadn’t just gone up to the potions master and outed himself. 

“I know we haven’t been on the best of terms lately,” he greeted when Draco had been called down into his office, “But you do know I don’t bear you any ill will?” Severus asked as he dramatically swept into the room. Draco smiled slightly. 

“You’ve always been such a loving godfather.” 

“Draco,” he said shortly. “Dumbledore told me. Your aunt told me.” He said. Again, Draco wasn’t surprised. “As someone who is _significantly_ smarter than you. Stop trying to push this further than it needs to.”

“Is this about Umbridge making fun of you for not getting the defense against the dark arts position?” He asked and Severus’ gaze dug into even more. “I have it under control.” He sighed when he didn’t get a reaction. “We both know I’m going to be involved in this war no matter what I choose. I’m just getting a head start.” 

“Like _this?”_ Severus asked, “Your parents disowned you-”

“That’s why!” Draco said, throwing up his hands, “Doesn't that make it even more perfect? I am the son of two powerful purebloods who has been disgraced and disowned. I was raised among Gryffindors, bloodtraitors, and muggleborns. I’ve been threatened, attacked, and had to change everything about myself to get where I am. If you were to choose between that version of me and the one who would have been sorted into Slytherin... which Draco Malfoy would you be more afraid of?” 

Severus closed his eyes. 

“What you’re suggesting is more than what Dumbledore had planned for you.” He said slowly. Draco snorted. As if he gave a _damn_ what Dumbledore had planned for him. The man was brilliant, no doubt. Smart. Cunning. Oddly Slytherin in his own right. However, as Draco said before, his loyalty had never been to him. There was only so far he would follow the man. It was an understanding they both shared. Severus pressed a finger against his temple. “You’ll need to follow my lead on this.” He finally said.

“You’ll help?” Draco asked, a little incredulously. Severus held up both hands.

“If you insist on being a moron then the least I can do is give you a fighting chance,” He said. Draco bit back his grin. He _knew_ his godfather would come through. He leaned back in his chair, “How far have you gotten with Potter on his occlumency?” He asked. 

“He’s curious about it. Definitely interested in learning more,” Draco said slowly, “I’m waiting for him to ask before bringing it up anymore.” He said. The last time they had spoken of anything occlumency related was after his first Umbridge detention. Draco wasn’t sure what had spurred that on, but he planned on figuring it out. He supposed he could just use legilimency on him, but Draco found he didn’t quite like the idea of using it on Harry. Not Hermione or Ron either, but _definitely_ not Harry.

Either way, he should be focusing on occlumency with Harry, he knew. Draco just didn’t have the time right now. Even outside of Severus and classes, his semester was pretty packed. You know, with… extra curricular activities. 

“I must say, Malfoy… this is a surprise.” 

Draco smiled as he let his eyes flick up and down with consideration. 

“I like to think I’m a pretty good liar,” he said and smirked, “Or maybe just more clever than you.” He added and Montague scoffed, holding out a piece of parchment.

“Ha freaking ha. You haven’t changed since we were kids, have you?” 

“I kept telling you as much,” Draco threw back before snatching the parchment away, “But you were just blinded by the red, weren’t you?” He asked, tugging at his robes pointedly. Montague shook his head.

“Alright, you’ve made your point,” he laughed and gave him another fond smile, “I’ll see you later then?”

“Wouldn’t miss it.” Draco said, tucking the slip of parchment into his robes. He waited until Montague had turned and disappeared down the corridor to let his own smile fade, putting the hood of his robes up as he turned the corner. The smell of cinnamon caught his attention. Draco paused, eyes flicking up the dimly corridor. He considering calling out to whoever was clearly hiding from him, but before he could someone cleared their throat.

“A bit late for a walk.” 

Damnit.

“And yet here you are. Walking.” Draco said as he turned to find Theodore Nott himself leaning against one of the passageways to the side of the corridor.

“Watching,” he corrected and pushed himself off the wall to walk over to him. “It’s been awhile. Care to finish our earlier conversation?” He asked. Draco inwardly grimaced. Not ideal. At all. Outwardly, he feigned confusion.

“I don’t know what you mean,” he said and ran a hand through his hair, “Look, I need to get back to-”

“I saw you.” Theo cut him off tersely. Ah… damnit. Draco felt his stomach twist. “Over the summer. You know, when you decided to break it off with me and go missing for a month.” He said. 

….unfortunate.

“I wasn’t missing-”

“No, because I found you.” Theo said sharply, “What were you even thinking?” He added and Draco reached out to quiet him. “Do you have any idea-”

“I appreciate the concern.”

“This isn’t just concern, Draco. You’re breaking the law!” He whispered, “Dumbledore put you up to it, didn’t he? I get that he’s on your side of the war, but I don’t trust the man-”

“He isn’t my favorite either,” Draco cut him off, looking over his shoulder, “But he’s smart and he’s powerful. More importantly, it isn’t your business what I’m doing, Theo. Stay out of it.” He warned. Theo took a long breath.

“They don’t know, do they?” Theo asked. Draco froze. “Merlin, Draco. I like your friends. They’re good people. Why are you leaving them-?”

“I don’t have a choice!” He interrupted, a little desperately. “Theo. Stop. Please.” He said and tugged his arm so they were hidden more by shadows than flickering torchlight. “You cannot be involved in this.”

“Or what?” Theo said, shaking his head slightly. “Someone has to talk sense into you. You’re fifteen.” He pointed out as if the entire situation was somehow Draco’s ideal scenario. Part of him wanted to yell that his summer had consisted of some of the most stressful months of Draco’s life, “Besides, it is going to escalate. It’s going to start out with this and then you’re going to get sucked in more and more. You do understand that, right?”

Either way… he had, well, an unfortunate situation on his hands.

“Do you trust me?” Draco asked and Theo fixed him with a long look that stood somewhere between ‘absolutely, with my life’ and ‘absolutely not with your own life’.

He wasn’t sure which one bothered him more. 

“I’m going to have to tell someone, Draco.” 

“Andromeda already knows. I’m not-” He began and then cut himself, “You don’t mean Andromeda, do you?” He frowned, “Theo… if you go to the ministry they’ll arrest me,” He said, a little taken aback. Theo closed his eyes. “Besides, what use are they? Your dad is still walking free after you turned him in last year!”

“They’re the people who are supposed to handle this kind of thing! Not you!” 

“You wouldn’t really turn me over, would you?” Draco asked, a bit incredulously. He wouldn’t. Couldn’t. Not Theo. Sure, Draco knew he could wilt under the gaze of authority… He liked to think you could do the right thing by following the systems put in place, but... he wouldn't, right? "Theo, they don't even believe that Voldemort is really back!" Draco pointed out, "How can you think they'd be a good ally in any of this?"

"I'm sure they have they're reasons-"

"What the Hell does that even mean?" Draco said, voice raising slightly, "You're going to chuck me into Azkaban because they _have their re_ _asons?"_ He asked. Theo pursed his lips. 

“They aren't going to put you into Azkaban for being tricked by Dumbledore," Theo shook his head, "Look, I promise I won’t say anything if you just tell me what’s going on and _stop_.” He said, a bit desperately. Draco’s stomach sunk. He stared at Theo. Part of him was bubbling with raw betrayal at the revelation Theo might actually turn him over. Maybe it was a bluff. A way to keep him from being stupid. Focusing, he tried to look into Theo's mind only to feel a sharp wall raise between them.

"Don't you dare try that shit with me," Theo said darkly, "My parents are Death Eaters. You don't think I know when someone is in my head?" He asked and pushed Draco away, "I'm not going to stand by and let you get killed for trying to play hero." He said in disgust. Draco swallowed. "Maybe you're right that the ministry won't take it seriously, but I can go to my parents right now and tell them everything. They'll all know never to trust you or a word that comes out of your mouth."

"If you tell them then my protection is taken away," Draco said, frustrated. Theo just shook his head, turning away. "Theodore!" He hissed and something inside of him panicked. He had to fix this. He had to fix this - but he knew Theo wasn't going to... he couldn't... Draco couldn't... He couldn’t risk it. Steeling his nerves, he took a long breath and grabbed Theo's arm.

“I’ll tell you what’s going on,” Draco assured him and pulled at his robes slightly to bring him closer. Theo frowned, momentarily distracted by the closeness as Draco adeptly reached inside of his pocket and grabbed Theo’s wand before he noticed. He slid it up his sleeve before speaking again. “I… just want you to know that…” he trailed off for a moment. His hand brushed his own wand. “I’m trying to do what’s best for everyone. Including you.” He told him quietly. 

“You don’t get to decide that.” Theo shook his head with a sigh. Draco grimaced.

“Right now, I do.” He said and before Theo could react, raised his wand. There was a fraction of a second where Theo’s eyes widened - moving for his own wand only to find it missing. 

“What are you-”

“ _Obliviate.”_

Theo’s eyes went blank. Draco wanted to cry. He stepped back, putting Theo’s wand back in his pocket as he did so, and waited before casting a confundus charm.

“Dra -? How…?” Theo mumbled, looking a bit numb as he blinked a few times. Draco swallowed.

“You told us to meet here, remember?” He asked and Theo looked around, “To break up with me.” He said, trying his best to keep his voice firm and even. “You’re angry. You… don’t want to see me anymore.” He added and Theo seemed to slump against the wall.

“Angry.” He repeated, voice still distant.

“You’re leaving soon. You’re not going home.” Draco told him, voice tightening. “You’re going someplace safe. Far from your family. You won’t take me with you.”

“Far…”

“Andromeda Tonks has the safehouse address. You’ll go to her. You can’t tell anyone. Instead you're going to tell everyone you're switching schools. I'm not coming with you. I… I betrayed you. I hurt you and you don’t want anything else to do with me.” He said, trying his best to drive the point home without it getting too suspicious. Theo gave a meek nod and Draco stepped back. 

Three… Two… One. 

Theo’s eyes snapped into focus.

“What are you still doing here?” He snapped. Draco internally sighed. Well. It worked. That was good news at least. “Draco, stop following me. I told you we’re _done_.” He said and fixed him with a cold glare. “If you wanted to come with me then you should have been honest in the beginning.” He told him before walking forward, giving a slight shove to the side. Draco watched him go. 

There. Done. That was that. He tried to numb the stinging in his chest as he retreated down the corridor, taking a few staircases up until he was once more in front of the Eagle gargoyle that led to Dumbledore’s office.

“I had to obliviate Theo.” He said as an introduction, stepping inside and pulling out the slip of paper Montague had given him. Dumbledore glanced up from his desk, eyes dimming slightly. “He apparently found me over the summer.”

“I know.” He sighed and Draco’s attention snapped to him, “I had… hoped it wouldn’t be an issue.” He said and stood up. “I am impressed you handled it yourself.” He added. Draco didn’t answer. He felt dirty. Wrong. Even if he knew it was the right call. “Are you sure it was strong enough?” Dumbledore asked, “If part of you didn’t want him truly to forget then the spell can weaken.” He warned. Draco grimaced, but gave a short nod in response.

“I sent him away too. Away from Hogwarts,” he said. Dumbledore’s eyes halted on him in surprise before his expression smoothed over, “His parents are Death Eaters. I figured… it was an opportunity to get him away from all that.” He explained quietly, “Before they get to him.” He said, mind flashing back to a body on the ground cold and still and - “I’m worried about Hermione,” he moved on, “If she figures it out…”

“They will eventually,” Dumbledore assured him and accepted the paper Draco held out, “And so I offer you a choice once more… Are you sure you want to choose this path? It isn’t too late to back out.” He said solemnly, “I would understand if you did.” 

He did. He absolutely did. 

“No,” he said… because it wasn’t about what he wanted. Not really. “I’m going to do this.” He said. Dumbledore gave a sad smile in response before sitting back down at his desk. 

“Very well,” he said and brought out his wand, “Then let us see what you’ve found.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **The comments:** Theo is trying his best. I hope you give him a happy ending.  
>  **Me, knowing damn well what this chapter was going to entail:** 👁👄👁
> 
> Believe it or not, this will be one of Draco’s best/worst decisions in the entire fic so promise I didn’t do it for no reason or to just get him out of the way. It's going to be...relevant. For, uh, other things. But yeah. That happened. 
> 
> As far as the oblivating... I'm altering canon very slightly (I think). I know there are other memory modifying charms out there, but we were never introduced to them so it didn't quite pack the same punch. I think that particular spell is supposed to just wipe the person's memory permanently of whatever you want them to forget, but honestly...that doesn't feel right to me? In Fantastic Beasts Jacob got his memory back after being obliviated? Maybe Queenie had something to do with that. I don't know! I like the explanation that the person's intentions decide the strength of the spell a bit better. It lines up with Lockhart's uses of it and doesn't make that spell feel quite as OP. Idk tho. That’s just me.
> 
> I'm pretty sure you guys might be able to figure out the other stuff going on with Draco, but we'll confirm it pretty soon anyways. 
> 
> Also, I deeply enjoy the idea that Draco is just like "I would rather say I’m a horrible, awful sexist then admit I'm just jealous" bc it's the level of dramatic he is.


	11. Year Five (In Which Draco Makes a Career Decision)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THIS WEEK IS THANKSGIVING IN AMERICA!
> 
> I totally forgot about that lmao. My bad. That means I'm gonna be traveling soon (and given COVID restrictions, safety precautions, and testing it is gonna probs take longer than usual) so I figured you guys could have this chapter now and maybe the last one whenever I get back. That might be the OG planned Sunday or maybe sooner depending on how much time I get at my parents' house. So... super quick update!
> 
> Gentle reminder that this one is angsty too. The stuff with Theo was like a... level 3 angst. This might be a level 7. I tried to sneak some fluff in there to even it out, but likeeeee idk. I'm trying so hard to help you guys through this. There's a plan! I promise! It's all for the best so that we can have a good ending! I'm low key nervous about posting this now lmao. We got this. It's fine. Enjoy (:

“You stress me out, you know that?” Ron asked as he sat next to him in charms. Draco raised an eyebrow only to jerk back when he got a finger shoved in his face, “Zacharias Smith?” He asked and made a face. “Why?”

“Rebound,” He shrugged, “Besides, he is a Hufflepuff-”

“You chose the worst Hufflepuff,” Ron muttered as Harry and Hermione also plopped down at the table. “I don’t want to hang out with Zacharias Smith!” He whined and collapsed on the table. “Draco, pick anyone else! Why aren’t you and Tristam a thing? I like Tristam. Or maybe just don’t date anyone for awhile. You never know, maybe there’s someone else you might like, but don’t realize you like.” Ron reasoned as if that made any sense at all. 

“No,” Draco said and pulled out his books, “Why does it matter to you so much anyways? You need to stop being weird when we date people.” He said, wrinkling his nose as he remembered the Vicktor Krum debacle. Hermione grimaced in sympathy. Ron scowled. 

“It matters because your bloody boyfriend is going to be one of us for the foreseeable future and I don’t want to be chummy with a bunch of snobs.” He said and yanked out his half-torn essay from his bag, “Speaking of snobs, did you hear Theo left Hogwarts? Rumor has it he’s going to Beauxbatons now because it is more ‘intellectually stimulating’,” he mocked. Draco tried not to react to that. “See? I already am bending my standards with you as it is.” He sniffed. 

“I’m honored,” Draco told him flatly. Harry snorted, “If it bothers you so much I won’t bring him around you-”

“That won’t work either,” Ron said dully and Draco threw up his arms in exasperation. Harry ignored them all as he tried to discreetly scribble the last few sentences of his essay under the table, “I need to keep an eye on him in case he tries anything.”

Draco could not believe this was a real conversation.

“Need I remind you that I have a wand and a vast knowledge of spells?” He asked and handed his essay forward along with whatever revolting parchment Ron had decided to hand in. Harry bit his lip and wrote faster. 

“Draco, you have to worry about your entire family being pricks. You shouldn’t have to worry about your boyfriend being a prick too. I can take care of that.” He said offhandedly. Unanimously, Hermione and Draco paused.

“Ron,” Hermione said slowly as Draco felt his face heat up, “That is so sweet.” 

Ugh. Gross. 

“No, it isn’t,” Ron muttered, face flushing a dark red. “I just don’t want him to be a nightmare to deal with if something goes wrong.” He added on quickly. Draco nodded in agreement. Yep. They were sticking with that. 

"Besides, he's not my boyfriend," Draco added. He didn't quite know what to make of Smith, honestly. Ron had once said they were very similar, which was only further exemplified during their first DA lesson when Smith voiced the same askance towards expellariamus as Draco had. Smith also seemed to agree with everything Draco said. It was a little weird. Also, he didn't know Harry like Draco did so he wasn't allowed to be throwing criticisms like that around. Though at the same time... it was nice to _finally_ have someone backing him up.

Like he said... he didn't know what to make of him.

“I don’t know,” Harry finally spoke up as he dotted one final ‘I’ on his paper and practically tossed it along with the rest, “I don’t see you scouting my love interests because of my hard life,” He clicked his tongue, “Maybe I’m not your favorite friend.” He said with feigned hurt.

“You don’t have a love interest.” Ron shrugged and Draco gasped.

“Yes, he does!”

“What!?!”

“No!” Harry said quickly, going red. “No, I don’t.”

“He does,” Draco told him with a nod, “It’s Cho Chang.” He said and Harry kicked him under the table, “Don’t be a bitch!” Draco hissed and kicked him back. Harry kicked him again because he was a bitch. 

“Cedric’s old girlfriend?” Ron asked. For some reason, he gave a small sigh before nodding. Hermione continued her reading, looking nonplussed at everything happening. Draco doubted she was surprised by the reveal. “Oh, _yeah_. You asked her to the Yule Ball before, didn’t you? She’s pretty.” He mused and tilted his head, “Do you think she likes you?”

“No.” Harry said with a sigh.

“Yes.” Draco countered. Harry blinked. “We already talked about this,” he shook his head, “You’re just an idiot.” 

At this Hermione gave a low hum of agreement because Hermione was reasonable. Harry stared at her, obviously betrayed. 

“She also called you _brave,”_ Draco sang under his breath, enjoying how deeply Harry flushed red. “Now that we have the DA you two should take some time alone to practice.” He added. It was meant to be teasing, but he almost immediately regretted the comment when Harry’s eyes snapped back to him with an air of remembrance. 

“I need some time alone with _you_ to practice,” Harry said, a bit shortly. Ron muttered something under his breath - possibly agreeing with Harry or maybe complaining about something else entirely. Draco sighed. “Why are you being so difficult about your patronus?” He asked.

Right. He regretted this line of conversation deeply. Harry reached over to tap his hand impatiently. 

“Class is starting-” He began and Harry narrowed his eyes in that awful way he did. The one where his nose scrunched up slightly and he didn’t look the least bit intimidating, but Draco usually always caved under the weight of it anyways. “I promise I’ll learn it.” He said.

...and meant it. The problem was that he really, really, _really_ didn’t think anyone else should be around if he ended up casting a corporeal patronus. Not that he could explain that. Harry had been really cross with him over the matter. Draco found that as a teacher, he was really quite skilled and patient with making sure everyone had a good handle on the spells he’d been teaching them. However, he didn’t put up with Draco’s nonsense, which was unfortunate for him. 

Almost as unfortunate as this entire operation's name. Dumbledore's Army. Seriously? _Seriously?_ Draco really fought hard against the whole thing. Why did they even need a name? Just call it fighting club or whatever and be done with it. Dumbledore didn't need an army. He needed a sense of compassion.

At any rate, Draco wasn't really thrilled with the whole situation. He supported Harry very much in teaching these misfits to survive, but... well... he just wasn't as invested in participating due to... reasons... Not that Professor Potter accepted that. Harry (tragically) knew him well enough to always… well, he wasn’t being _outsmarted_ by Harry. Draco downright refused to admit that. But, well, yeah. That was what it was. Anytime Draco tried to skip a meeting or not participate or even just talk back, Harry was ready to slap him back down. It was infuriating. Tristam and Zoe (the newest DA members) were forever teasing him over it. Most Hogwarts professors were unable to deal with Draco Malfoy, but apparently Harry could force him to learn a proper reductor curse even if it meant holding Harriet hostage (a very real thing that happened and Draco _still_ had not forgiven him for). 

The point was that Draco was trying to be agreeable to the DA stuff even if his schedule was becoming… very full. 

“I’m sorry, I’m late.” Draco said as he entered Dumbledore’s office. He set the red quill down in between him and Dumbledore. It was a handy little device, Dumbledore’s quill. Writing something on a paper with the quill would always appear on whatever parchment the other was using and vice versa. It was how they conversed when Draco couldn’t meet for a while. 

“No matter,” Dumbledore said easily and fixed him with a bemused smile, “I take it you are looking forward to winter.” He said, gesturing Draco up and down. He sighed, looking down at the dirt caking him over. Draco had found that he stuck out too much in his... _disguise_ with his hair being so light. Dirt was the easiest way to mask it.

“I’ll be thrilled when there’s snow,” he said and threw himself into an empty chair. “I need to learn to use a patronus.” He said, cutting straight to the chase. Dumbledore raised his eyebrow. “Harry wants me to learn it. Should I be concerned?”

“Why would you?” He asked and Draco glared. 

“You _know_ why. I’m sure I’ve been seen. If people put two and two together…” he said and rubbed one of his temples. Dumbledore didn’t respond right away so he decided to go ahead and be blunt. “Will my patronus be the same as my animagus form?” He snapped. 

“They can be different,” he hummed, “But most likely they will be the same.” 

Ugh. That’s what he figured. If anyone had noticed the white, furry creature trekking about the castle they might get suspicious upon seeing what Draco’s stupid happy animal was. He sighed, giving a wary nod. A problem that couldn’t be dealt with right now.

“Here. I have more names,” Draco continued and slid a piece of parchment to him, “There’s a surprising amount of Ravenclaws.” He added. Dumbledore pursed his lips, reading over the names carefully. 

“Miss. Hayden is a muggleborn.” He said and Draco grimaced. 

“I know,” he sighed, “She thinks if she switches sides early on that they’ll spare her.” He said quietly. Dumbledore’s jaw tightened on that, but didn’t argue as he filed the list away. “As for Harry, I think he needs to know-”

“I disagree.”

“You're not the one who has to calm him down when he wakes up screaming,” Draco said hotly and… okay, screaming was a _bit_ of an exaggeration, but Draco had lost count of how many times he had dealt with Harry shooting up in the middle of the night drenched in sweat and shaking. No amount of potions fixed it. He _tried_ to get Harry more interested in occlumency, but nothing worked. “And he keeps dreaming about this… door.” Draco continued.

“A door?” 

“Yes, a windowless corridor with the door at the end,” Draco explained. He flicked his wand, ridding himself of the dirt as he shook out his hands. Bloody claws. He couldn’t wait until he figured out how to keep them from cutting his hands up in human form. “Do you know what it is?”

“Possibly…” Dumbledore mused, “I don’t think dear Tom realizes what Harry can see yet.” He said. Draco clenched his teeth. Harry also didn’t know what he was seeing either, which was _why_ they should let him know. Of course, then Voldemort would know… 

"There has to be some explanation I can give him," Draco tried as he wrung his hands together, "It would make him want to try more at occlumency-"

"Draco," Dumbledore said, voice incredibly gentle despite the warning note underneath, "I thought we had a deal. I can't help you unless you help me." He said and offered him a lemon drop. Draco's jaw clenched. Well, then. At least he wasn't pretending as though they were friends. Sighing, Draco stared at his lap for a moment (pointedly ignoring the candy) before slowly nodding. He supposed... he _could_ see the risk with Harry knowing that Voldemort could see into his mind. Maybe it was safer if he didn't know... right?

The whole thing sucked. 

“Hufflepuff is next,” Draco finally said as he straightened up, “I’ll get you their names next week.” He said and Dumbledore lifted an eyebrow.

“You know where their common room is? How to get in?” He asked. Draco nodded. He didn’t want to say that he had been snogging Zacharias Smith for a solid month or so for the sole purpose of infiltrating Hufflepuff, but that was what he’d been doing. Ravenclaw had been surprisingly his favorite so far. If you were clever enough to get in… that was it. No passwords or anything. It ensured no idiots got into their common room (well, for the most part), which Draco appreciated immensely. “Very well. I’ll write soon.” He said, nodding to his own red quill that matched Draco’s. He nodded, picking up his bag to leave.

Part of him wanted to go to the library for homework. Part of him wanted to sleep instead. Between this thing with Dumbledore, classes, the DA, and now weekly meetings with Umbridge to… well, discuss… _things_ … he just wanted to rest. However, part of him was ready for Harry to jinx him over missing today's DA meeting. He inwardly groaned. Dumbledore always wanted to meet him at the worst times. Umbridge had been driving Harry slightly mad… and the reveal of her use of the blood quill hadn’t been helping either. _That_ had been quite the revelation. Draco had wanted to be more ticked off by the whole thing, but had to remind himself that he would be a hypocrite if he started scolding Harry for keeping secrets. Besides, it had given Draco a chance to learn some good healing potions. 

“Harry and Cho kissed.” 

...maybe he wouldn’t be yelled at after all. 

“Really?” Draco asked as he entered the common room, setting his bag down. Harry looked as though he had been hit repeatedly with a book as he gave a very stoic nod in return. “Good job. How was it?” He asked. Harry considered.

“Strange,” he decided, “Wet. I think I did it wrong.”

Ugh, _gross_.

“Wrong?” Ron asked, “How do you do it _wrong?”_ He asked and Harry grimaced. “Draco, can you kiss wrong?” He asked, turning to him. How fun. 

“It isn’t that hard,” Draco shrugged, “Just don’t really worry too much about the tongue and try not to make any weird noises.” He said, wrinkling his nose. Kissing always seemed so awful in hindsight… yet he kept doing it. Really it was a bewildering duality. Harry looked alarmed.

“Tongue?” He repeated, “You use tongue?”

“Only if you’re a whore,” Ron said and Draco hit him. “Jeez, I was _kidding,_ ” He complained. “Touchy.” He muttered. Harry ignored him, falling back on the ground as if this one kiss had taken all the energy out of him. Draco smiled fondly at him, though part of him felt a tad... uncomfortable. It must be his horribly sexist thoughts towards Cho again. Supportive. He needed to be _supportive_. Cho had been through a lot lately. Her boyfriend died and the ministry just... denied that he was murdered. That had to be rough. Andromeda mentioned that Fudge had outright blocked any requests to investigate his death.

Poor Cho. He felt... so bad for her. Maybe it was good her and Harry were snogging. Maybe shared trauma was romantic. Who knows? Not Draco.

“It gets better the more you do it,” Draco told him and pulled out his textbook. “Besides, it’s not like anyone other than us will know that you’re terrible at it.” He said, lightly. Harry paused, eyes flicking over him for a moment before propping himself up on his elbows.

“That reminds me… can you show me more of that occlumency stuff?” He asked. Draco shrugged.

“I guess, if you want me to.” He said while relief bloomed in his chest.

Bingo.

* * *

During his first year at Hogwarts, Draco had always felt insanely jealous of the masses of owls dropping packages off during breakfast. Mainly because he knew he was missing out on the doting letters from home, endless sweets, and other treats his parents would have undoubtedly spoiled him mercilessly with. There was also the fact that any communication he _did_ receive was usually filled with bad news.

His second year was better. Andromeda had been kind of enough to write him every few weeks. It had been a bit of a weird time with them still trying to get to know one another and learning how best to interact with the other. Then, during his third year it had been Andromeda, Ted, and sometimes Dora too. His fourth year then entailed even more correspondence with Remus and Sirius occasionally thrown in the mix.

Now, he had Fleur and Gabrielle also writing him.

Fleur wasn't so bad. She would write him (only in French, of course. She had informed him that he needed to keep working at it because he wasn't as fluent as he should be) asking about school among other things. Draco enjoyed writing back and mentioning everyone... but Bill Weasley. It was only after her third letter she broke and asked about him. Draco found it endlessly funny to heckle her about it. He was pretty sure she was keeping in contact with Bill as well, but using Draco to see if he had been mentioning her. Like he said - hilarious.

Gabrielle on the other hand... Help him.

Having just turned nine, Gabrielle wasn't old enough to go to school yet. This meant she had lots of time to write Draco. Every. Single. Day.

Hermione thought it was cute. Draco found it horrifying. Sometimes her letters consisted of only a couple sentences to inform him of recent events that were happening at that moment in time. Other times she drew him pictures and sometimes he just had no goddamn idea what she was talking about.

Most recently, she had taken to trying to get Draco to send her Harriet via owl so that she could visit. This was the third time she had requested this despite Draco trying to explain that Harriet wouldn't appreciate an owl carrying her to France.

"Maybe you and Andromeda should visit them during break," Hermione suggested when Draco started banging his head against the table, "You could bring Harriet with you then and she would stop asking for awhile."

"I don't have time to see them over break," Draco said, rubbing his temples. Hermione raised an eyebrow, "With OWLs, I mean. I need to study." He explained and Hermione gave a hum of understanding. Ron, on the other hand, scoffed. "Oh, shut it. Maybe if you weren't so lazy you would stand a chance of passing." He said.

Ron only stuck his tongue out in return before inhaling (yet _another_ ) bowl of porridge. It was truly amazing how much he could eat.

"Be nice to me or I'll have you in detention," Ron told him joyously with his mouth full. Draco narrowed his eyes. "You can join Harry with Umbridge." He added, though the humor left his eyes at the mention of the she-devil. He turned to give her a venomous look at the front of the room.

"Yeah," Draco said, "Are we going to do anything about that?" He asked, nodding at the seat Harry usually occupied. Draco figured he would let him sleep in today given that he had spent his Friday night getting his hand sliced open. Hermione grimaced.

"He really doesn't want us to tell anyone..."

"Sirius would lose his mind," Draco said wisely, "I vote we tell him." He said and reconsidered. While it _would_ be fun to see Umbridge screech upon Sirius Black himself walking through the door to punch her in the throat, that probably wasn't best given that he was... you know. A fugitive. "Severus." He decided instead. Ron laughed. "Alright, maybe he wouldn't be the most reliable." Draco sighed.

He liked to think Severus would be mature enough to handle this. Truthfully? He wasn't sure he was.

Maybe Dumbledore... Would he do anything? Probably not. Draco wouldn't be surprised if he already knew and was just sitting back because there was some sort of veiled, very deep lesson to be had or whatever bloody rubbish he spilled.

"Andromeda," he decided, "She would fix it."

"Andromeda actually is a really good person to tell," Ron agreed, turning to Hermione. "If anyone could take on Umbridge it would be her." He said and then pointed a spoon at Draco, "Plus she _loves_ you and Andromeda is your guardian." He pointed out. Draco shrugged. There you go.

Hermione didn't look quite so convinced.

"I... agree, but we should be careful..." She said slowly, "I mean, Harry doesn't want people to find out. We did promise we wouldn't tell-"

"Okay, but we agreed to that when we thought it was a short-term thing. She has him in detention almost weekly now!" Draco argued. Hermione nodded at that, though she didn't look entirely sure. Probably scared of pissing Harry off. Hermione _hated_ fighting with Harry and recently he had been pretty moody. Still, if push came to shove she typically would stand her ground if she felt she was in the right.

"I also don't think we should underestimate her," Hermione pointed out, putting her goblet of pumpkin juice down to purse her lips, "If anyone could spin it so Andromeda looks like an unfit guardian..." She said slowly and jerked her head towards Umbridge. Draco spluttered, "She did manage to paint all of our previous teachers as unfit." She pointed out.

"Okay, but Andromeda isn't a werewolf, Death Eater, or an idiot." Draco said stubbornly. Then paused. Umbridge _was_ trying to get him back with his family... the easiest way to do that would be getting rid of Andromeda. "Alright, fine." He amended and then shook his head, "McGonagall."

"Harry said-"

"Harry is really bad at judging his own safety measures," Draco said, tossing down his own spoon of cereal.

"He didn't tell us this for a long time," Hermione argued, "If we betray his trust then he won't tell us anything in the future. We'd be better trying to get him to come forward instead."

Damnit. That was a really good point... and Draco needed Harry's trust if he wanted to keep them on the right occlumency track. Plus, well, he was already abusing everyone's trust enough as it was. Groaning, he held his hands up in surrender. Hermione's grimace told him she was feeling similarly. Speaking of the devil... Harry himself was walking into the great hall looking more haggard then ever. Draco sighed. He must have had more nightmares.

"Morning," Ron greeted when Harry finally sat down with a grunt, grabbing a few sausages before yawning.

"Good morning," he mumbled and rubbed one of his eyes, pushing his glass to the side. Draco grimaced. Maybe he should try a new sleeping draft for him. Absently, he reached over to try and fix his robes so they weren't in complete disarray. "It's Saturday." Harry told him.

"So? You can not look like a disaster on a Saturday," Draco shot back. Harry made a face at him in return before pointedly messing up his hair some more. "You're a brat." Draco told him flatly and Harry smiled at him. Ugh. He was such a tyrant.

"Harry," Hermione began tentatively, glancing at Draco and then Ron, "We were... just talking about Umbridge," she said quietly, voice going a bit weak at the end as Harry's eyes snapped to her with a concerning amount of heat to them. Hermione swallowed, "We just think maybe if there was an adult you trusted-"

"Oh? So now you're discussing things without me too. Lovely."

"Don't talk to her like that," Draco told him sharply. Harry narrowed his eyes. "She's actually trying to find a solution to your mutilated hand, which is more than you can say."

"I didn't _ask-"_

"And that is very accommodating of her to care about you without being asked," Draco said, pinning him with a hard look, "We all know you've been making that difficult lately." He said and Ron choked on his milk, eyes widening ever so slightly as he glanced at Harry.

"Draco." Hermione interjected and he turned to meet her eyes. Inwardly, he sighed. She didn't have to say it for him to know. Trauma. Harry had it before last year and it was honestly a surprise it took him this long to start showing the effects of all he had been through. Biting his tongue, he looked away. It would just be nice if Harry knew where to direct that trauma... that's all. Still, Draco knew he didn't mean it. He also felt a stab of guilt knowing that... well... it wasn't _just_ trauma either... Shaking his head, Draco went back to his own work. He was falling a bit behind in charms... and by 'a bit' he meant that Flitwick pulled him to the side and lectured him for a solid twenty minutes about his falling grades.

Unfortunately, his studious aspirations were a bit short lived since Zoe appeared to demand they spend the day with her, Sadie, and Tristam. Draco tried not to seem to adverse to that, but... well... he admittedly hadn't been able to look any of them in the eye lately.

"Come on, Draco," Zoe said when he tried to weasel out of it, "We can still be friends even if you and Theo aren't a thing anymore," she told him, bumping shoulders with him, "Besides, if anything _you_ ended up being a better friend. Theo barely said goodbye to us before he ditched for _Beauxbatons_." She grumbled. Ron tilted his head.

"He didn't tell you he was going?"

"I mean, he did, but it was all kind of last minute," Zoe frowned, tapping against the table thoughtfully, "He never mentioned it before that night. Then the next day he was... gone." She said, shaking her head, "Maybe being around you was too much for him." She added and Draco frowned. "I don't mean that in a nasty way! Obviously, it isn't your _fault_ or anything. Just... I don't know. It was kind of weird-"

"Are we talking about Theo?" Tristam asked, hopping over a few benches to join them, "Sadie! Come on, we're talking crap about the traitor-"

"Traitor seems a bit harsh..." Draco said uncomfortably and Tristam scoffed.

"He hasn't even _written_ us, the git. He was my best mate for five years and now what? He just leaves and doesn't bother with writing?" He asked, shaking his head, "I have half a mind to write Winston and ask what is going on with him." He grumbled. Draco hated this. "Have you heard from him?" He asked to Draco and he quickly shook his head. Hermione, on the other hand, frowned.

"He tried to talk to Draco at the feast," she said slowly, shoving the remainder of her breakfast away. Draco turned to meet her eyes, hoping to keep his face blank. "Maybe something happened... with Voldemort returning and all." She mused as the others cringed away from the name. Draco sighed, shutting his book with a small glare at all of them.

"Or _maybe_ he got annoyed with something ridiculous happening at this bloody school every _single_ year," he said, "So if you could all stop torturing me with this that would be great." He told them all. Guilt played at everyone's features as they looked away in unison.

"Sorry, Draco," Sadie said and grabbed his arm, "Let's go to Hogsmeade to make it up to - oh, hi, professor!" She said brightly when Severus came by with a pointed scowl at where the group of Slytherins were huddled at the Gryffindor table. Tristam gave him a bright smile.

"I like your robes, professor!" He said, "They're very black."

"Yeah," Zoe jumped in, "And flowing. Very majestic."

"Indeed."

"Yeah, love the aesthetic."

"Sort of a dark and mysterious type vibe-"

"Get back to your table," Severus cut them off, eyes narrowing. Tristam groaned, but moved away from the table to drag Zoe with him as Sadie kept trying to make plans for Hogsmeade as she walked away. Draco chuckled a bit as they went, noticing Severus give his students a thinly veiled look of amusement before going back to skulking off somewhere else.

Draco looked down at his charms book.

...maybe Hogsmeade wasn't such a bad idea. He needed more potion ingredients anyways and Harry should get out of the castle... He glanced up at the other three. Really, Draco had all of Christmas break to catch up. He slammed the book down, making everyone at the table jump with the leather thudding against the wooden table.

"I'm going to drink twenty butterbeers or die trying." He decided. Fred and George, of course, perked up from the far end of the table.

"An adventure!" George called happily as Fred began to clap to show his enthusiasm for Draco's daring endeavor, "And they said you weren't a true Gryffindor. Godric himself is looking down on you, Draco Malfoy!"

"Hear, hear! A challenge!" Fred agreed and hopped up. Ginny, on the other hand, seemed more intrigued rather than impressed. She took a considering bite of her flapjacks.

"Bet you ten galleons you can't do thirty." She said and Draco raised an eyebrow at her. Harry nodded, apparently over his previous irritation. He pointed his fork to accentuate Ginny's offer.

"She's right," he agreed, "Don't be a coward. Do thirty."

"Fine," Draco sniffed, "I'll do _forty_."

In the end, he ended up doing sixteen and then passing out for the rest of the weekend. Ginny gave him five galleons 'for trying his best' though, which felt was downright insulting, but he was too sick to really do much about it other than glare.

"I made you tea," Harry told him at some point during Draco's sugar induced coma. He squinted up at him, noting the cup in his hands, "And it already has milk in it... didn't put any sugar though because I thought it might kill you." He told him, setting it down. Draco sat up to take a small sip and almost cried at how his body instantly seemed to perk up.

"You put Pepper-up potion in this, didn't you?"

"I figured I should start practicing for day I inevitably poison you," Harry told him and Draco couldn't help but grin at that, "Is this some sort of weird cry for help?" He asked. Draco's smile disappeared. "I mean, first Zacharias Smith and now you're attempting death via butterbeer. I'm a little worried about you, Draco." He said and then reached forward to grab the hand Draco wasn't holding tea in, "And why have these _still_ not healed?"

"Merlin, you sound like Andromeda." Draco told him, a bit aghast, "If I had known getting tea would lead to an interrogation I would have just slept some more... And as if _you_ can talk." He grumbled. Harry scowled at him in return.

"Is this about Theo?"

"No!" Draco told him, a bit too quickly. Guilt gnawed at him the moment he heard the name, sending his stomach twisting uncomfortably. "I just - Voldemort is back. It's a lot, okay? I'm coping." He told them. Harry looked him over for a moment before slowly nodding. Thank God.

"Fine, move over then."

"Excuse me?"

"Move _over_ ," Harry said and pushed Draco on the other side of the bed, spilling tea everywhere. He yelped, flicking his wand before the scalding water could touch his skin. He gave Harry an outraged glower as he climbed into bed with him, "I need to finish this potions essay and if you're okay then I'm going to pester you into helping me."

"No."

"It's too late. I'm here. I'm pestering you." Harry informed him flatly, bringing out a piece of parchment, "Hermione already told me no so you're my last hope." He said. Draco groaned and flopped back on his pillow, tossing the now empty cup to the ground. Somehow, it didn't break as it clattered across the wood floor. "When would you use a Draught of Living Death?" He asked and poked Draco, "When?"

"When a bleeding four-eyed nightmare with bad hair decides to bother you for no reason," Draco told him sourly. Harry poked him again, " _Stop it."_

"Well, you're not being very helpful, you see-"

"I'm going to hex you." Draco said and Harry scoffed before writing something down on his parchment, "I - you didn't really put down to use it when someone is bothering you, right?" He asked. There was a long pause to which Draco sat up to see that Harry had written just that.

"That's what I would use it for," he said. Draco couldn't believe all of his life decisions had led him up to this point, "I think I would also use it on you when you get a bit too obnoxious," he added as an afterthought and then wrote something else down. Draco didn't even want to know.

In the end, Harry only tortured him for about ten more minutes before he let Draco fall asleep again. The next time he woke up, it was well into the night and to the sound of choking. He turned, already rolling out of bed to grab another calming drought. Harry murmured as he rolled over, jerking a bit. 

“...no…no, wait…” he murmured and Draco frowned. “Stop. Stop - _look out!”_

“Hey, Harry.” Draco said and shook his shoulder, “Wake up.” He said. Harry didn’t wake up. He thrashed and yelled out - effectively waking up half the dormitory as Draco felt a stab of alarm. “Harry. _Harry.”_ He said a bit more forcefully. 

Harry took a shuddered breath, flinching and jerking so much that Draco would have thought an invisible figure was actually attacking him. Feeling a wave of panic, he gave Harry one more rough shake. Right. Okay, this wasn’t working. He felt a surge of panic when the others started to move around, giving concerned murmurs at Harry’s rapidly devolving state. Draco yanked out his wand. 

“ _Protego horribilis!”_

Harry froze for a moment - body going unnaturally still before gasping. Draco dropped his wand, rushing over as Harry choked on air, moving to his side as he struggled to breathe again.

“Help,” he managed as Draco grabbed his arm, “He… he needs help-”

“Who?” Ron asked, appearing suddenly by Harry’s other side, “Hey. Mate. Calm down.” He said, but Harry didn’t calm down. He babbled helplessly for a moment, trying and failing to form words. Eventually, some semblance of a story came together. Mr. Weasley was attacked by a snake and there was blood and it was bad and he was in the Ministry of Magic. 

“Go get McGonagall,” Draco told Seamus lowly. 

“What? It’s just a drea-”

“ _Now_ , you useless infidel.” Draco hissed, and turned back to Harry, softening his voice, “Hey. Scarhead. It’s okay. Just breathe. We’re going to get him. He’s going to be fine.” He promised, trying and failing to sound reassuring. Harry’s hands were gripping tightly into his pajamas, trembling.

“What spell did you cast?” Ron asked him, rubbing Harry’s back reassuringly. Draco paused.

“Um, just one to wake him up.” He said and went back to trying to coax Harry back into coherency. Ron’s eyes dug into him. Draco could sense a bit of nervousness from him - the concern for his father deeply outweighing whatever suspicion he had about Draco for the moment. 

“He said your name.” Harry managed and Draco almost flinched when his hold got uncomfortably tight. 

“Who? Mr. Weasley?” Draco asked and Harry shook his head. He was still trembling, but he seemed a bit calmer down. They already had to keep forcing him back into the bed with reassurances that they were getting help.

“No… this… this woman…” He murmured and swallowed, “She was in Azkaban…” He breathed out, “Voldemort… he was talking to her and… he said your name… I couldn’t hear the rest.” He managed and then shook his head, “They said…” He frowned and looked up at Draco with furrowed brows. 

“What woman?” Draco asked, though deep down he already had a feeling on who it was.

“It wasn’t Andromeda, but she looked like her.” He said, slowly, “Her hair was black and she kept laughing…” He trailed off again. Draco closed his eyes. Bellatrix. Oh, what a fun family reunion he was going to get when they inevitably broke out of Azkaban. Swallowing, he gave a short nod.

“Okay.” He said and absently brushed some hair from Harry’s eyes. It was at this moment that the actual _adults_ came by, which was real nice of them after waiting so long. Harry popped up - already spewing out his concerns with as much conviction as he could manage.

The rest was pretty typical. They saw Dumbledore - who resolutely did not look at Harry - and ended up back at Sirius’ house. Draco had figured he was in the clear. Well, sort of. Harry cornered him a few hours later.

“Ron said you used a spell to wake me up,” he greeted. Draco internally cringed. He didn’t like the way Harry was looking at him. They were alone in one of the house’s many rooms - Draco had gone to one of the more obscure ones in hopes of being left alone - but alas. Not even the house's favor helped when his highness Sir Potter decided they needed to speak.

“Yep,” he told him and flicked a page in his transfiguration textbook. “You’re welcome.”

“I asked Hermione about it.”

“I’m glad you’re learning.”

“She said she didn’t know of one other than maybe shooting water at me.” Harry pressed. The house shifted around slightly, door opening itself as if somehow knowing that he wanted to leave. Harry turned and slammed it back shut. That wasn't good.

“Well, I am learning to be a healer,” Draco shrugged and snapped the book closed. He looked warily towards the door. Maybe he could say he needed to write to Andromeda or something. He got up with the intention of doing just that when Harry blocked his exit from the door.

“Hey,” Harry snapped his fingers, “Stop lying to me.”

“I’m not lying!”

“Harriet says otherwise.” Harry informed him and Draco turned to stare at where the snake in question was curled up in an armchair. Immediately, she turned black, shrinking in size under the weight of Draco's scowl. “She’s worried about you.”

“Traitor,” He said to her lowly, but Harry seemed done with any deflection he might have thrown out because he yanked impatiently at Draco’s arm. “Harry-”

“Tell me what’s going on right now or I’ll get the others.”

“Oh, wow, resorting to threats now, are we?” Draco drawled, forcing the usual amount of snark to cover any panic that might have been underneath. “Just say thank you and move on.” He told him and Harry’s eyes narrowed, “Besides, you have no room to talk about keeping things. Look at your bloody hand!” He said, gesturing to Umbridge’s handy work. 

“Look at yours!” Harry said and Draco glared back. “And you’re admitting there is something you are hiding.” He said. Draco tossed the book to the side and threw his hands up.

“Fine. You want to know what it is? I’m worried about my parents and I’m not talking about it because you would be a total _git_ about it-”

“I don’t believe that’s all of it!”

“Well, that’s too bloody bad, isn’t it?” Draco shot back, temper rising. “Stop taking out your bad mood on me! It isn’t my fault Dumbledore isn’t your bestie anymore.” He snapped. It was a button he knew he would regret pushing. Still, he trudged forward, “Maybe if you could actually handle things reasonably then you wouldn’t be left out.” He continued and went to move past him again, but Harry shoved him back.

“Contrary to what you may think, I’m not actually stupid.” Harry said, voice colder than Draco had ever heard it. “You know, it's funny how you got all weird this summer and then come back sick all the time or with bleeding hands," he said taking a step forward. Draco subtly shifted back, "Funny, how you keep disappearing during the night or whenever you think we're distracted. Funny, how whenever I check the goddamn map I see you _constantly_ in Umbridge or Dumbledore's office," he continued and this time when Draco went to step back he hit the wall behind him, "Funny, how you've been writing Sirius so often and when I asked about it he wouldn't tell me anything."

"I-"

"Also, while we're talking, it's _so_ funny how Montague and the others don't seem to bother you anymore-"

"What are you trying to-"

"Funny, how Voldemort kept whispering your name when I was dreaming. I could have sworn he said something about winning you over."

"I don't-"

"And all of this happening around the same time Theodore Nott just mysteriously vanishes to go off to Beauxbatons without a word to anyone. Just so. Bloody. Funny.” He gritted out and Draco gave a fake laugh. It didn't sound very convincing.

“This again,” he said, “What? You think Theo turned to the Death Eaters? Or that I did?” He asked bitterly. “And good to know, by the way, that you trust dream-Voldemort more than me-”

“Obviously the dream was credible considering Mr. Weasley is at St. Mungo’s,” Harry answered hotly. Draco felt his own temper rising dangerously. He wanted to tell. He wanted to tell so _badly_. Everyone said they would find out anyways. Harry already knew the dreams were credible. Maybe he should come clean. “And you know what? Maybe I am a little freaked out with you being best friends with bloody _Umbridge_ -”

_Don't tell, don't tell, don't tell, don't tell._

"-taking her side!"

"I am not taking her _side,"_ Draco said tightly, stomach twisting. He snapped his mouth shut, worried if he kept talking he might just spill everything. Harry looked at him and there was such clear hurt there that he felt another piece of his resilience chip away, "Just... it isn't anything you need to worry about."

"Then say what it is!"

"You wouldn't understand."

"I wouldn't understand," Harry repeated and crossed his arms over his chest, "Does it have to do with the war?"

_Don't tell, don't tell, don't tell, don't tell._

"Well, technically," Draco began and winced at how uncertain his own voice sounded, "It's just something I would... rather you not be involved in." He told him quietly. Did he like lying to his friends? No. Did he feel guilty about manipulating Harry in some instances? Of course. The thing was... well, truthfully... if Harry knew the big picture then he would be... difficult and Draco just didn't want to deal with that.

"You know, I think I got involved when I saw Voldemort rise from the dead."

"I - that's not what I mean. Not that part."

_Don't tell, don't tell, don't tell, don't tell._

"You're not making any sense."

_Don't tell, don't tell, don't tell, don't tell._

“I’m an animagus.” Draco blurted out. Harry froze. Shit. There was a hot moment of silence in which Draco debated on his next move. There was still anger bubbling over him - frustration that seemed to force the words from his mouth after a whole term of lying and hiding and manipulating and -

“Excuse me?”

“I’m not registered,” Draco explained with a meager attempt not to sound frustrated, “It’s where I was all last summer. It’s a really complicated process that takes a long time and so I couldn’t be around where anyone could see me-”

“ _Why?”_ Harry interrupted, voice growing more and more dangerous. Draco held back his own emotions. This… would probably be the part that pissed Harry off more than anything. He swallowed. Sighing, Draco rubbed the back of his neck. Calm. He needed to be _calm_. Maybe Harry would understand. 

“I’ve been helping Dumbledore,” he said slowly, “Trying to figure out what students are going to be Death Eaters. I’ve been going between the houses to narrow down the list and letting Slytherins think I’m interested in maybe rejoining my family so that they tell the Death Eaters.” He admitted. Harry’s expression went eerily blank. “Look, this part of everything is really safe. It helps me to sneak around to be in my animagus form and since the ministry doesn’t believe Voldemort is back I couldn’t register legally-”

Harry raised a hand to silence him.

“You’ve been working with Dumbledore?” He asked. Draco felt himself crumble slightly. “What the Hell?” He whispered. “I…” he began. Draco waited. Harry’s temper had been stirred so easily lately that he half-expected him to throw a punch. “What spell did you use on me?” He whispered, voice shaking. Draco stared before sighing. 

“It diverts dark magic,” he finally answered, “That’s why Dumbledore won’t look at you. There’s some sort of weird link between you and Voldemort. That’s why I’ve been telling you about occlumency. To help shield your mind from him before he figures it out.” He explained. Now that the words were out… the look on Harry’s face was quickly sending any of Draco’s residual anger down the drain fairly fast. 

“He… told you… that Voldemort is inside my head and you just… didn’t say anything?” Harry asked, voice tight. Draco closed his eyes. “He told you and not me? Did nobody think I should know that Voldemort is prowling around my head?” He asked. This time his voice rose - not quite a yell, but almost. “All the occlumency stuff…” He trailed off.

“Andromeda and Severus taught me over the summer.” He said. Harry clenched his jaw.

"So you've just been toying with my head?"

"Wha-? _No!"_ Draco practically spit out, "I was trying to get you to protect yourself before Voldemort realized-"

“Who else knows?” Harry cut him off. Draco swallowed, “Fucking Hell, Draco. Who else?!” He shouted and it was actually a lot of work not to jump at the volume of his voice. Silence came from downstairs. 

“Sirius, Remus, Mad-Eye, Nymphadora.” He listed off quietly. Most of the Order knew Draco’s jobs over the school year. Though, admittedly, only Dumbledore and Severus knew he wanted to take Umbridge’s offer. Harry stared at him. The betrayal in his eyes was something he had expected to face eventually, but…“I wanted to say something, but… Dumbledore didn’t want to risk the Dark Lord finding out and I wanted to show that I can take this thing further with Umbridge-”

“What thing?” Harry asked. Draco swallowed, but didn’t answer. While Dumbledore may have been responsible for keeping Draco silent on the occlumency stuff... _this_ was admittedly what Draco had wanted to keep Harry out of, “She offered to help you actually go back to your parents, didn’t she?”

“Dumbledore told me if I do well with this then we could talk about me pretending to rejoin my family to protect them-"

“Oh, bullshit!” Harry snapped at him, “So what? You’re going to become a good Death Eater?” He growled. The armchair Harriet was in snapped in half, Harry’s magic no doubt losing complete control in the face of this. Draco's own temper began to snap back up as he glared right back at him. "This... this is so ridiculously selfish-"

"Oh, fuck off," Draco muttered, crossing his arms over his chest, "What's _wrong_ with me being a little selfish? They're my parents! Am I supposed to sit back and do nothing to help them?"

"So?" Harry threw back, "They're bad people. They're fucking bad people and it's ridiculous you are putting your life on the line to help."

"I've just spying on _students_ who _might_ try to turn. It hardly counts as putting my life on the line," Draco said, shaking his head, "We've done way more dangerous stuff in the past. The only reason you would even care is because I'm trying to use it to find a way to help my parents. Otherwise you would be lining up right behind me to do it!" He argued. The room's temperature rose slightly, almost as if wanting to flush them out. Both Harry and Draco stood their ground.

"But you want to take it further. I know you do - and it's bullshit that you're lying to us to help _them_. Why is it that you're never happy with us? You have Andromeda. You have Sirius. You have Remus. You have Hermione. You have Ron. You have Molly. You have Fleur. You have me. You have everyone wrapped around your goddamn finger and it's _still_ just not enough for you!"

"I knew you would be difficult. It's exactly why I didn't tell you. They're my _parents!"_ Draco growled back, voice rising slightly, "And you know what? Fuck you for thinking you're innocent in all of this," he said and Harry's brows shot up in feigned amusement as he let out an mordacious scoff, "No, seriously. What would have happened if I told you that I wanted to help them? You would have bitched about it then too. And guess what? The reason why nobody tells you anything is because you never know how to deal with shit. You didn't tell anyone about Umbridge. It would have been so simple to just ask for help, but we had to notice it ourselves. Even now you won't tell someone who can actually fix the fucking problem! We could have told someone about the stone during first year instead of going after it ourselves, you and Ron could have told literally any witch or wizard that you missed the train instead of driving a _flying car to school_ during our second year, there were several other solutions to help Ginny other than facing that stupid chamber ourselves, and those are just the immediate ones that come to mind! If anybody told you _anything_ happening right now then you would run off and try to fix it yourself because that's what you do! Harry fucking Potter go and saves the day. Who cares if he lies and cheats and puts himself in danger? He's allowed to do because he's Harry Potter, right? But no. No, not when anyone else does it-"

"I've always told you what's going on!" Harry hissed, face going bright red, "I've never lied to you outside of that _one_ Umbridge thing-"

"That isn't the point! The point is the Order trusts me to do this because I'll include them and won't fuck around and try to do it myself! They can't say the same for you-"

"I don't ask for these things to keep happening to me!" Harry shouted back at him, "And you're getting off-topic completely." He added venomously. Draco laughed. Right. Yeah, sure he was. If his majesty was called out on his bullshit then _obviously_ they were getting off-topic, "You're the one playing the hero!"

"Hero?" Draco asked innocently, "I thought I was being selfish? Can you please clarify which one it is?" He asked and shook his head before Harry could answer, "Trust me. I don't care about Dumbledore's greater good. That's his fetish, not mine." He added darkly, pacing back and forth to try and keep his magic from reacting. The house was already trembling as it was - shelves shaking and the walls around them going pitch black.

"So you've just decided that the people who _disowned_ you matter and everyone else can go to Hell?" Harry asked. His voice was shaking. Normally, Draco would be concerned, but his entire boy seemed to be too overwhelmed with anger to properly react to anything. His head was pounding, heart racing, hands shaking - entire body taut with frustration. He wanted to scream.

"It isn't just my parents," he whispered, "They _did_ come after us this summer. A Death Eater found us and... Dumbledore wanted me to have my animagus form to hide if need be, but Andromeda and Ted don't have that!" He pointed out, breath catching slightly as his mind flashed back. Screaming. Blood. So much blood... A body... He looked away. "Voldemort is going to come after them too. I need to do what I can to protect my family." He said and shook his head, "Besides, what if they win? I need to be have inside contacts to at least _try_ and save you guys-"

Harry laughed. It sounded a bit hysterical honestly.

"What the Hell is wrong with you?" He whispered and shook his head, putting his hands over his head with long breaths, "I wish you _had_ been sorted into Slytherin," Harry seethed, eyes glazed over with angry tears. Draco knew he probably looked the same. "That's where you want to be and clearly where you belong."

"Trust me. I wish the same-"

"Oh, yeah," Harry laughed darkly, "We all know how much the Pureblood Prince himself should have been in Slytherin."

"I meant I wish _you_ had been sorted into Slytherin," Draco shot back at him coldly, "Since you obviously value loyalty so much. Well, you know. As long as it's to you, I mean. Hey! There's something you and Voldemort have in common! Everything is all fine and dandy unless someone doesn't prioritize you, right? Unless someone tries to help someone who you _don't_ like."

"Are they really worth all of this?" Harry asked, shaking his head, "They don't _care about you!"_

"That's not-"

"IT IS TRUE!" Harry exploded, going full-volume, "And you... you are so goddamn desperate... you would turn against everyone who actually does care about you for them. It's disgusting."

Draco blinked. Just like that... all the anger was gone for a second. He was pretty sure it was the shock. Out of everything he had anticipated Harry screaming at him... something about that last part really caught him off-guard. There was a sharp pang in his stomach as he stared back. Perhaps the worst part of knowing someone so well was that you had access to all their weak spots.

Normally, anyone who knew the basics of Harry would just shrug and say he had no parents to understand Draco's side of things and call it a day.

Draco knew a bit more than the basics.

"At least I'm trying to keep the people I love safe," he said lowly, "You're going to get them killed like you always do."

The house reacted quicker than either of them did. Draco was actually a little shocked the magic was that powerful. There was a loud cracking sound that sent them both tumbling to the ground and a sharp yell that sent thunderous footsteps below them. Dust rose, obscuring most of the room so that Draco ended up coughing for a few moments before realizing the room and torn itself in half. The door flew open.

"What in God's name is going on?" Severus growled and his eyes fell to where Harry was practically trembling with rage and then to Draco staring back at him with equal fury on his eyes, "Bloody _teenagers,"_ he muttered and walked over to yank Draco up, leading him away. Harry stepped forward, but Severus only shoved Draco behind him before turning to face Harry with a scathing look, "Keep. Yourself... in line." He warned, voice almost a whisper.

It was often that Draco appreciated Severus' ire towards Harry, but in this moment... he would let it slide.

"Go ahead then," Harry spat back as a few others raced inside, "Get him killed then! I don't care! Let him run off and die with the rest of the _fucking_ Malfoys!" He shouted as Sirius went over in a worried attempt to calm him down.

"Come." Severus told him lowly and Draco followed him, already feeling a hint of regret swelling as he saw Hermione and Ron watching from behind Shacklebolt and Remus with confused eyes. He only met them for a moment before turning away again.

* * *

The visit to St. Mungo’s was… very awkward. Molly had insisted Draco join him despite the fact it was very, very, very clear that his friends were all very pissed at him. Naturally, Harry had told Hermione and Ron who weren’t as pleased by the development either. Hermione had walked into the room at one point - looking as if she had every intention of shouting at him - before walking back out after she seemingly was unable to find the words.

Which is why he found himself with Neville.

“Your parents?” Draco asked quietly as they sat across from one another. 

“Ron’s dad?” He asked in return. Draco nodded. “Why aren’t you with them?” He asked, absently playing with a loose string on his robe. Draco grimaced. 

“I’ll say hi in a bit to Arthur, but… I doubt the others are very pleased with me at the moment.” He said, tapping his knee. Neville gave a small scoff.

“Didn’t take well to you being an animagus then?”

Draco’s eyes snapped to him in horror.

“You-? Neville, you can’t _know_ that!” He whispered, a bit panicked. Hermione, Ron, and Harry were one thing… not ideal, but forgivable. Dumbledore told him from the beginning that they could know if the moment was right and he wouldn't hold it against him. However, he had to _obliviate_ Theo over it and send him away-

“Don’t worry,” Neville told him, “I sometimes watched you from the greenhouse. White foxes aren’t exactly common.” He mused, “But rolling around in the mud was smart.” He added and when Draco stared, held up his hands, “I’m not going to say anything. I figured it was something between you and Dumbledore.” He said and Draco buried his face in his hands.

“What makes you say that?”

“Well, you’re an obvious choice to train for a spy,” Neville shrugged, “With You-Know-Who back, I mean. Between your family and your friends… plus, you’re smart.” He added with a shrug. Draco laughed. 

“Really? I’m not feeling too smart right now. I’ve messed up everything... Literally, everything. Harry got mad at me and I just… immediately spilled it all. You noticed too, apparently. I’m _terrible_ at this.” He said bitterly. Perhaps he was seeing quite clearly why he wasn’t sorted in Slytherin. There wasn’t a cunning bone in him after all. Maybe he would just end up getting his parents killed faster. Neville chuckled.

“You’re one of the smartest people I know,” he said and Draco looked up. “And the only reason I’m passing potions.” He added. Draco gave him a small smile. “And learning to lie to your friends is the hardest. They hardly count.” He shook his head. “You’ve only just started.”

Neville was so nice. Draco had always known it… and been a little terrified of it, honestly. It didn’t make sense to be that nice. There wasn’t an inch of snarkiness or even sarcasm to him. He was just… sweet. 

Even more… Draco truly did believe he would keep the animagus thing a secret, which was good because he did _not_ want to obliviate Longbottom. Not after seeing Lockhart. Not with knowing why Neville was even _here_. Not after Theo...

“Thank you,” he said and watched as the others started exiting the space where Arthur was. “I should go see Mr. Weasley now,” he said and picked up a stack of papers. Neville tilted his head at it curiously. “Oh, um. I asked Ted earlier to ask for a detailed explanation on what the function of a rubber duck was. I figured Arthur would like it.” He said. Neville grinned.

“You know, if they’re still mad at you when we get back to school you can always visit the greenhouse.” He said. The others were walking towards them now, looking curiously at Neville with bewildered expressions. More worryingly, Draco could see Augusta also approaching. That was one woman he did not wish to cross.

“Thank you, Neville.” He said and smiled warmly at him. 

…maybe he would spend more time with Neville. Just to see what happens.

The rest of visit with Arthur went well enough. Draco was right to say he deeply enjoyed his gift. Molly praised him all the way back, even if the other three resolutely continued to ignore him. It continued for the rest of the day. Draco could tell the other Weasleys weren't really sure what to make of it all either. Fred and George looked like they might want to say a thing or two, but for once seemed to think twice about voicing their opinion.

“They think I’m the next Pettigrew.” Draco said as he sat in front of the fire, which had very kindly lit up for him the moment he walked into the room. Sirius glanced up from where he was seated diagonally from him to grimace, “Am I?”

“I don’t know.” Sirius said, tilting his head “Are you?” He asked and Draco sighed. He looked down at his hands. 

“No,” He said quietly “But I-” He swallowed and shook his head “I’m confused.” 

“It’s okay to be confused.” Sirius smiled and shifted so he could place a hand on his knee “We’ll figure it out.”

“Umbridge is putting me back in contact with my parents,” He said slowly, wringing his hands together “My father said that they found a way for me to regain my family name.” He sighed. Sirius winced. 

“Ah,” He murmured “By being the next Pettigrew.” He nodded and Draco stared at the fire.

“I’m going to do it.” 

“What?” Sirius jerked back, “Draco.” He said sternly and Draco met his eyes with a shake of the head.

“I can be a double agent. Like Severus.” He said, leaning forward. Sirius scowled back at him. “Dumbledore said I could if I proved I could help him this year...but the more I think about it..." Draco said and stopped himself. He didn't _need_ Dumbledore's permission. In fact, arguably, if Draco had done things his way from the beginning it would have worked out better. It probably wasn't best to voice that though. "My father has made mistakes, I know. But my mother… She hasn’t taken the mark. She never wanted this life. She was born into it. If I don’t at least pretend he’ll kill them both.” 

“If you’re worried for your mother we can put her somewhere safe,” Sirius told him, “But you absolutely are not joining the Death Eaters. It’s too risky and you’re a child.” 

“A child?” Draco repeated and jutted out his chin, “What are you Molly now? You said Harry should know everything about the war because-”

“I know what I said,” Sirius interrupted, “And I stand by it. There is a difference between knowing and putting yourself in danger.” He emphasized, “All four of you should know what’s going on – but walking straight into the fire is different. You’re fifteen, Draco. Snape was much older when he became a double agent.” He added, distaste rolling off his tongue at the mention of his godfather

“And what about Severus?” Draco argued “He’s my godfather. If I don’t do something he’ll be at risk too. Then you’ll have no double agent.” He tried. It was the same argument he gave Dumbledore and Severus. Admittedly, after his recent failure he hadn’t been sure anymore, but… Neville was right. He wasn’t _hopeless._ “It would make so much sense-”

“No. Draco, I…” Sirius interrupted and closed his eyes, “I know, okay? My parents asked me the same thing when we fought in the last war.”

“Except it isn’t the same! You hated your family.” 

“And you don’t? They abandoned you!” Sirius told him, voice rising slightly, “They stand for blood purity, pride, killing muggles – don’t tell me you still buy into that?” He demanded and Draco felt his own ire rise slightly at that. He sounded like Harry.

“Of course, not!” He growled “But people can change – I did!” He argued “I believed in all of that. And if I can help my parents see then maybe-”

“Draco, you are putting yourself at risk for something you can never have.” Sirius shook his head, “They sided with Voldemort in the last war. They had all the time since then to change their minds and haven’t."

"I _can_ have it," Draco said, fingers twitching by his side, "And _you_ know it too. There's a reason this house responds to me and not you." He told him hotly. Sirius went completely still at that. It was... well, Draco was sure Sirius knew that Draco knew. This kind of magic - his _mother's_ magic - it didn't respond to legality. Hell, it didn't _just_ respond to blood purity either.

Walburga and Orion Black hated Sirius. The house knew that and acted accordingly... but Draco's connection to the Black family wasn't through Walburga and Orion. It was through his mother and the fact that he was getting nice blankets and soft pillows and bloody snacks appearing in his room meant that she still cared about him. _She still cared about him._ He couldn't just leave her in danger knowing that, could he?

"That isn't enough to practically sign your death warrant," Sirius argued, stiffening as he gave a vague gesture around them, "And if you’re that desperate for their approval who is to say you wouldn’t turn?” 

Draco jerked back. Sirius seemed to process what he said a second too late as his eyes widened, mouth opening to backtrack. He never had a chance as Draco suddenly stood. 

Desperate. There was that word again. _Desperate._ Him. Desperate enough that he would turn against his friends? Anger thrummed through him as he slammed the door open, ignoring Sirius’ calls after him. He pushed past the house, hoping nobody noticed his eyes glazing over as he tried to make his way up to one of the spare bedrooms. 

“Draco?” Andromeda frowned, walking past. She must have just gotten here. Part of him wanted to pause and hug her, maybe ask about Theo, but instead he just brushed past her. He climbed up the stairs until there were no more. He knew where Sirius’ bedroom was and made sure to avoid it as he slammed the door open to the one down the hall. He at least had a good twenty minutes alone here. 

The room he entered was covered in green and silver. It was lavish, with polished wood and silk bedding that had a familiar crest painted over it. The Black family crest. Draco wandered a bit closer, noticing news clippings scattered about. On one of the walls was a photo of the Slytherin quidditch team. In the center was a boy clinging onto the snitch, smirking into the camera. At first Draco thought it was Sirius. 

He had forgotten there had been another Black. Regulus. This must have been his bedroom. Looking around, it felt fairly obvious. He leaned forward a bit more, having never seen what Regulus looked like. 

He had the same hair as Sirius, black and silky, though chopped much shorter than his brother’s – it was slicked back, revealing a handsome face that was coupled with dark, twinkling eyes. 

That could have been him. Slytherin seeker. Prefect. Heir of his family fortune. Draco’s eyes flitted to another photo of the Blacks. Unlike most portraits in the house, Regulus didn’t mark his brother out. He wondered what kind of relationship they had. If Sirius was jealous of his brother or disappointed in him. Maybe both. 

“Your family sucks.” He told the photo and threw himself onto the bed. 

“You have no idea.” 

Draco gave a small yelp, almost falling off the bed at the voice. He jerked up to see a portrait of Regulus was looking down at him with a rather bored expression. For the most part, Draco knew portraits spoke, but photos typically didn’t. The painting was so realistic he hadn’t known which one it was. 

“Hi,” He said lamely “Sorry to bother you.” 

“No, no. I love strangers in my room,” Regulus rolled his eyes, “You look like my cousin. Narcissa. I mean, the eyes are different, but everything else...” He tilted his head “Know of her?” 

“She’s my mother.” He said and Regulus paused. 

“Your mother,” He repeated and frowned, "Your..? I see. Do you still go by Cassiopeia then? Or something else?" He asked and Draco felt a lump in his throat harden.

"No, um. Different kid. That was my sister. I'm Draco," he explained, rubbing the back of his neck, "I think you died before I was born-"

" _Oh,"_ Regulus said, nodding, "Apologies. I hadn’t realized how much time had passed,” He gave a short laugh “I knew she was pregnant before I... well, nevermind. I'm glad she went with Draco. It was either that or Scorpius and I kept telling her that dragons were more formidable than scorpions." Regulus said with a subtle shrug.

“I like Scorpius," Draco mused and then looked Regulus over for a moment, "She… Told you about me?”

“Of course. Your mother and I were quite close. I was the one who introduced her to Lucius. Like you said, you hadn’t been born yet when I died. I still helped her choose the name.” He smiled lightly with an approving nod, "I'm glad you turned out okay. She was worried with the Malfoy lineage magic there might be some complications," he mused. Draco tried not to wince at that, “What brings you here?” 

“Your brother.” Draco told him with a sigh and Regulus raised an eyebrow.

“Ah. Him.” He said slowly and grimaced, “Sirius does tend to rub people the wrong way.” He murmured. Draco smiled a bit at that. “What has he done now?” 

Draco knew he shouldn’t say anything. Regulus did become a Death Eater after all. And portraits were as good as spies as any. Still… Maybe if he worded it just right…

“I want to help my parents, but he won’t let me.” He started carefully “And my friends are really upset with me. All of them. Even…” He trailed off. Even Hermione. She hadn’t even looked at him recently. Draco had at least figured she, of all people, would hear him out. The fact she wouldn’t spoke volumes for just had badly he’d messed up in her eyes.

He talked for hours. And hours. And hours. About everything on his mind. His parents, Severus, his friends (never to be named, of course), feeling trapped, alone, scared. Not knowing how to deal with Umbridge or how to fix any of the mess he got himself into. Regulus was a surprisingly good listener. He nodded and asked questions in all the right places. 

At some point Draco must have fallen asleep because he felt himself blearily waking up to yelling. He was in Regulus’ bed, the silver sheets tangled around his legs as he felt a hand running through his hair. 

“Hey,” Andromeda greeted gently. Sirius was at the edge of his bed, locked in a staring contest with Regulus’ portrait. 

“You realize I’m a painting, right?” Regulus was saying and Sirius growled, picking up a cloak and draping it over the frame. “Wow,” Came the muffled response, “You got me there.” 

Draco snorted, rubbing his eyes as he sat up.

“My hands really hurt,” he said, utterly defeated as he unwrapped the bandages to show her. “Every time I transform they break open my skin and I don’t know how to make it stop.” He sighed. Sirius paused and walked over, taking Draco’s hands for a moment to examine them. Guilt touched his expression.

“How are your teeth?” He asked and Draco shrugged, “When I first started transforming, my teeth would always hurt because of the fangs.” He said lightly and rubbed a thumb over Draco’s battered knuckles. “It happens when you transform too much. How often are you doing it?”

“Um, usually every other day.” He said and Sirius grimaced.

“Yeah… that’s way too much for someone new to this. Keep it to once a week and work your way up,” he said and looked Draco over, "Have you stopped feeling sick? I don't know what foods are bad for foxes, but as long as you keep the chocolate and stuff to minimum before shifting you should be okay." He added. Draco nodded. Sirius' previous instructions covered the basics well enough. No food that would upset his feeble fox stomach an hour before transforming. It was a taxing task given his love for peppermint patties, “Look, I’m sorry. I went too far.” He told him and then swallowed, “And in all honesty… I get it. I wish I could have helped Regulus.” He told him, gesturing to the room around them. Draco frowned.

“Really?”

“Yeah,” he shrugged, “He was my little brother and when I ran off… it couldn’t have been easy for him. To be left behind with my parents. To… have been abandoned. I thought he wouldn’t want to come with me so I didn’t bother to offer. Now, I wonder if maybe he would have chosen differently if I had given him that chance.” He said.

“That would have been nice,” Regulus’ painting said, voice muffled from the cover. Sirius rolled his eyes. “Glad to be included-”

“Shut up before I paint over you.” He threw back, “Sorry. Ignore him. He’s an attention seeker.” Sirius said. Regulus gave a small gasp. Draco offered a weak smile before looking down at his lap. 

The last time he remembered crying was when he was eleven and was so certain he was about to lose everything because of a stupid hat. Now he was older and it felt like he was about to lose everything again…

“I promise I can do better,” he said, taking a shaky breath, “I just need more time to figure it out.”

Andromeda and Sirius looked at one another. Draco poked around each of their minds, trying to read the silent conversation they were having. Both must have realized he was there because they turned to him. He gave a small smile. 

“Sorry,” he said and then grimaced, “Um, though, now that we’re having this conversation. I should mention that Dumbledore wanted me to teach Harry occlumency... I don’t think he’s willing to learn from me anymore,” Draco said and then flinched, "I... said something really awful to him when we were fighting." He added. For the first hour or so after he had calmed down, Draco had tried to convince himself that Harry had been asking for it... then spent another three hours giving into the bone-crushing guilt.

“Ah,” Andromeda said and nodded, “Yes, I figured. I suppose that means he’ll have to use the back-up teacher.” She said and Draco tilted his head. “Severus.” She added. Draco bit his lip at that. 

“I know technically I'm the one everyone is mad at right now and Harry is my friend, but, um, ” Draco nodded, “Can I be there when you tell him?” He asked, “Please? It would make me feel so much better.” He said. Sirius fixed him with exasperated eyes. No doubt he would be just as upset as his godson over the new arrangement. Draco would make sure Severus at least knew to take it seriously.

“There he is.” Andromeda snorted and Draco gave a hesitant smile before biting his lip. Well... since he already pissed Harry off pretty badly he might as well go all the way.

"Umbridge is using a blood quill on Harry," he said and the smile disappeared from Andromeda's face. Sirius also froze - going so still that Draco felt as though he better get the rest of it out fairly quickly, "He didn't want us to tell anybody." He explained and went on to tell them both the reasons why nobody had said anything and what exactly Umbridge had been doing to Harry during all those detentions.

Sirius was... not pleased.

"I did warn you about this," Draco said as he watched his cousin take a few deep breaths, "I wrote you about our first and second year over the summer. This isn't that unlike him." He said. Andromeda shushed him for a moment, eyes flicking Sirius over with concern as he continued to look at the ceiling as if hoping to find answers somehow carved into the roof of his dead brother's bedroom.

"I'm _not_ going to leave this house," Sirius said, voice tight and very clearly upset, "Because that... would be an overreaction and dangerous... and I guess that - even though I am the adult here - that some people feel the need to withhold information from me because I'm not to be trusted to behave reasonably." He said slowly and in a tone that had Draco slightly inching away from him.

He was briefly reminded of Hermione's askance about starting the DA after learning Sirius was for it. Normally, he might point out that Sirius didn't often _act_ like an adult... but he wasn't actually willing to potentially tick the man off right now. It was a bit easy to forget that Sirius was actually a very powerful wizard who survived an abusive family, war, and Azkaban sometimes. Draco felt a little guilty remembering that now... how frustrating would it be to go through so much only to find yourself helpless to protecting your dead best friends' kid because you were confined to a house and not told basic things?

"Um," Draco began carefully, "To Harry's defense," he said - though Draco had no idea _why_ he was defending him - "You are probably the most important person in his life right now. The idea of losing you terrifies him." He said gently. Harry had never said as much, but Draco wasn't stupid. Any moment Sirius' safety was brought up he became more cautious than Draco had ever seen him, "So, don't be, uh, _too_ upset. Still be upset though." He added... because he didn't want him completely off the hook.

Sirius gave a sort of laugh-sigh as he ran a hand over his face.

"I'll try my best," he said, sounding exhausted, "I'll talk to McGonagall about it too. She can do some snooping around to try and catch Umbridge with them," He told him and then nodded to himself, "Harry lives with the Dursleys. He doesn't know any better." He added - more to himself than Draco or Andromeda. "I'm not upset."

That seemed... very incorrect.

"I'm going to drink some tea, find Harry, and have a very reasonable conversation about this. Then, whenever this war is over with and I am free man, I will find this woman and I will finally commit one of the crimes they imprisoned me for." He said and with that got up and left. Draco watched him go with a bit of concern. He turned back to Andromeda.

"He'll... He'll be okay," she told him, not looking too sure herself.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner..." He said slowly, rubbing the back of his neck. Andromeda shook her head.

"Thank you for telling us now," she said and patted his knee, "Just... try and enjoy Christmas."

Ha. Enjoy Christmas.

Christmas was...something. It was a little weird with everyone mad at him, but he made do. Sirius gave him an old Black heirloom, which was a volume about animagi that he confessed he often had turned to when he and the Marauders learned to shift. Draco had already read a good chunk of it - hoping to finish it before the holidays ended. 

Fleur and Gabrielle also sent him some macaroons along with letters from both. Apparently Bill had spent the holidays with them. Draco was sorely tempted to bring it up to the rest of the Weasleys since he was pretty sure Bill had told them all he was working during the holidays, but figured now wasn't the time for him to cause more drama... yet.

Molly got him another Weasley sweater, which he wore for the rest of the day even if Ron glared at him the entire time (and muttered under his breath about knitting him one with the Dark Mark on it next year). Hermione had hesitantly given him his new cauldron before giving a tense hug. She had also snapped at Harry and Ron to hand over their gifts to him, which admittedly made him feel a smidge better. 

Andromeda’s gift had been the most surprising though. 

”They were Bella’s,” she explained when he unwrapped them, “I took them with me when I got kicked out. Just to piss her off.” she smiled. Draco ran his hand over the knives.

“And you're...giving them to me?” He asked, a bit baffled. They were completely black, save the handles, which were an intricate mix of silver, dark green, and a shimmery blue. The metal felt warm at his touch.

Andromeda smiled sadly.

“Blood magic,” she explained, “Is a type of dark arts that can be used only by descendants of the original owner. These knives were in the family for years before Bellatrix. They usually are given to the oldest child, which… well, technically that would be Nymphadora,” she explained, “But something tells me she won’t have as much need for them.” She sighed, “They… will help you learn dark magic quicker. And prove to the others that your loyalty is to the Death Eaters.” 

Draco stared.

“You’re okay with me doing this then?” he asked, unsure if he should hold the knives closer or further away. “I… didn’t think about the fact I would need to know dark magic.” He admitted. It felt so obvious. How could he try to join the Death Eaters if he didn’t know the type of magic they practiced? Andromeda smiled tightly.

"This is... incredibly dangerous, Draco," She began and shook her head, "And I'm not sure I can stop you. So I'm just going to do my best to prepare you.” She said and gave a small grimace. “You do know you’ll have to do horrible things… to prove yourself?” 

Draco nodded. It was a lie. He hadn’t thought about that at all. It wasn’t something that shouldn’t have blindsighted him. He _knew_ what sort of things Death Eaters did. Perhaps his foresight in this was lacking after all. He had been so determined to be helpful… to protect his parents and his friends… he hadn’t quite considered what he would need to do to get there.

“This will be more than spying on your classmates,” Andromeda said, regaining his attention, “They already have plenty of reasons not to trust you. If you hesitate…” She warned before shaking her head, “Severus will help you.” She murmured, more to herself than him. Draco reached over to grab her hand.

“... I’m still not as stressful as Nymphadora, right?” He asked. Andromeda scoffed. From the doorway he heard a slight noise of objection and turned to find his cousin scowling at him. “Hey, Dora.”

“Don’t call me that.”

“Sorry, Dora.”

“You’re a bloody menace-”

Everything was going to be fine.

* * *

Everything was _not_ fine. Why did he keep reassuring himself? Nothing ever worked out for him. 

It felt as though the second they returned to Hogwarts that things went very wrong… and by very wrong, he meant that a bunch of Death Eaters broke out of Azkaban. 

“You okay?”

Draco glanced up from the paper (in which his Aunt Bellatrix was laughing maniacally at him in her mugshot photo) to where Ginny was trimming her broom… not that there was much she could do for the poor thing. It looked as though it was made a few centuries ago. Draco was a little cross she couldn’t just borrow Harry’s old firebolt, quite frankly.

It was perhaps a little childish of him… but part of him was a little smug at Harry getting kicked off the Gryffindor team after picking a fight with Montague. Draco was lucky Umbridge liked him so much. Otherwise Gryffindor wouldn’t have been allowed to play at all. As it was, Slytherin was the only other quidditch team allowed to practice. 

“Okay?” He asked and Ginny looked pointedly at that paper, “Oh. Right. Yeah.” He sighed, “It should be a fun little family get together.” He muttered, shutting it with a little more force than necessary. Ginny gave a weak smile.

“You don’t think they’ll come for you, will they?” She asked. Draco looked at her.

“If Ron cares then he should ask me himself.” He said shortly. Ginny clicked her tongue.

“I care too, you know! Though… well, he is an idiot so he sent me to ask,” she told him, not bothering to deny being used as a very bad spy. “I don’t actually think he’s terribly upset at you. Just concerned.” She shrugged. “They all are.”

“Aw, how sweet.” Draco grumbled. He wasn’t in the mood for this. Would they come for him? Bella, Uncle Rodolphus, Rabastan… it wasn’t unreasonable. The thought made his stomach curl. “Tell them they’re always free to ask… given they aren’t being cowards about it.” He added. Ginny bit her lip.

“You know, they would probably be alright if you just promised not to get involved with-”

“I’m not promising that.”

“ _Why?”_ Ginny asked, aghast. “Draco, it’s really dangerous.” She said firmly. There was a note of real concern in her voice that was a little touching. She squinted at him. “I promise not to hex you if you don’t do it.” She added. Draco grinned at her. Ginny _was_ rapidly becoming renowned for her hexing skills.

“How about I promise not to let a Slytherin pummel you during your first game as seeker instead.”

“They don’t scare me,” She sniffed. Draco raised an eyebrow. “Montague will fall a lot harder than I will if knocked off his broom,” she said wisely. He couldn’t argue that. “Look, just… don’t be stupid.” She sighed and reached over to pat his arm. “Because if you are… I’ll hex you.” She grinned and got up.

“Maybe be nice to me and I’ll buy you a new broom!” He called after her, “Then you can use that one to sweep up the attitude!” He said and laughed when she flicked him off. Out of all the Weasley siblings… her and Ron were probably the most alike (well, outside of Fred and George, obviously). It made missing Ron himself a little easier cope with.

As it was, it didn't look like Draco would be speaking with him (or Harry and Hermione) anytime soon. He was pretty sure out of all the fights and squabbles they had... nobody had made anyone as mad as Draco was making Harry. According to Ginny (who wasn't just Ron's spy, you know), Sirius was having McGonagall call Harry into her office everyday to make sure Umbridge wasn't using a blood quill on him while Dumbledore 'took care of the situation'.

Yeah, _right_. Draco kind of doubted Dumbledore would take care of anything... part of him suspected he already knew before anybody else.

Either way, Harry was (not surprisingly) being a little irked by so many adults acting as overbearing body guards. Draco wondered how long he could deal with everyone babying him before he cracked.

Speaking of dealing with things… he had to meet Severus.

“So, you’ve decided to continue down this foolish path.” He greeted dramatically because Severus was probably the most dramatic man ever to exist. Normally, it was something Draco found admirable in him, but given recent events he found he wasn’t in the mood.

“Yes,” he said, letting his bag fall to the ground, “Are you going to try and persuade me not to like everyone else?” He asked. Severus paused in casting some enchantments over the door before looking at him in the same way he used to look at him back as a child. You know, the one adults gave when a five-year-old asked about Father Christmas or some other question that would create an internal debate on whether to be truthful or nice. 

In his experience, Severus usually went with truthful. 

“We’ll need to get you caught up on dark arts,” he said instead, ignoring the question altogether. “Anything that the Dark Lord might ask you to do to prove yourself. Also, unforgivable curses.” He added. Draco nodded. “Though, first…” He said and lowered his wand to stand in front of him. “We need to discuss who you will practice all of this on.”

Draco jutted out his chin. He had expected this… though arguably, he still wasn’t ready for it. 

“Umbridge?” He suggested lightly. Severus didn’t laugh.

“It’ll probably have to be me,” he decided and whipped his cloak as he turned away. Draco flinched. The idea of using an unforgivable curse… especially on Severus… 

“We’ll build to that though, right?” He asked. Severus snorted. 

“If it's something you’re adverse to then this might not be the place for you.”

“I would think anyone would be adverse to it,” Draco snapped back, “I mean, how likely is it that I would even need-”

“Very likely,” Severus said, turning back to him, “In fact, it’s a certainty. I’ve watched the Dark Lord kill many of those whom I’ve grown up with. He’s had me kill them myself. Torture them. Mostly to prove my loyalty, but also to test my strength.” He said and took a small step forward. “If you tell him no - to any of his requests - you won’t be a Death Eater. You’ll be useless… and useless servants end up dead,” he finished coldly before fixing him with a firm look, “Or orphaned.” 

Draco tried to stay calm at that, instead masking his face and throwing up his mental walls. He felt Severus prod tentatively in head, before pulling back. 

“You need to ready yourself for it. Me. Andromeda. Definitely your father.” Severus continued. He was piling books and parchment in front of him along with an assortment of items Draco felt a vague recognition towards. 

“What do you mean?”

“They’ll ask you to turn Andromeda over. You’ll have to do it - perhaps if you’re clever the pair of you will find a reasonable escape plan. If it doesn’t work, they’ll probably make you kill her. Well, _ask_ you to,” He rolled his eyes, “As for your father… the Dark Lord may have forgiven him, but he won’t pass up an opportunity for vengeance. He’ll make you torture him as punishment for his numerous errors.” 

Draco knew this was all meant to scare him. Another tactic to drive him away from the danger and into the clutches of safety and his friends. However, he also knew that every word Severus was telling him was undoubtedly true. 

“Where’s the line then?” he asked quietly, picking up a jar full of moving eyes. “At what point is it acceptable to refuse to do something?”

“It isn’t.” Severus said, “Refusing to do something only puts your position at risk. The reason you’re doing this is to protect your family? Both blood and in heart?” He asked, surprisingly without a hint of condescension. Draco nodded slowly. “The only way to do that is to ensure the Dark Lord’s demise. The only way to ensure his demise is to keep feeding information to the people who can kill him. You can’t do that if he doesn’t trust you.” Severus said and slapped his hand away when Draco went to reach for a black box on the table.

“So there’s nobody you’ve ever asked him to spare?” Draco asked, though he could already guess the answer. Severus was a lot of things. He was hard and cold and could be cruel without any real reason. Draco didn’t bother to make excuses for some of it, but… for other parts…

Would this be what he turned into? When all was said and done?

“There was one person,” Severus answered him. Draco waited. “Because he was grateful for my service, he agreed to give her a chance. She did not take it.” He said solemnly and then gave a satisfied nod at his work of piling dark objects between them.

“I’m sorry-”

“Don’t be sorry,” he snapped, “Be prepared. I won’t accept stupidity as a pupil.” He told him and grabbed the black box Draco had reached for earlier and opened it, “Since you seem to be a fan of baby steps… we’ll try this.” He said and clicked open the box. 

Draco jerked back. His father was in front of him. Sort of, at least. He looked real enough, but when Draco reached out his hand went right through him. Severus tilted his head. Waiting. 

Oh. 

“The screams and begging will sound very real.” Severus informed him. Draco’s heart dropped. 

Oh. 

He hesitated - wand going lax in his hand as he tried and failed to think of a way to postpone this particular lesson. Severus' eyes told him it wouldn’t work. He glanced up at the fake figure of his father. At least… it wasn’t like he was doing anything to a real person. Not yet anyways.

"I'll learn your way," he finally said, looking his fake-father over warily, "But in the end... I'm going to do it my way. I need you to understand that. You and Dumbledore can use me all you want for now, but in the end I have my priorities. If they don't align with yours..." He trailed off, shrugging. "You are _not_ smarter than me." He added indignantly. Severus scoffed.

"And what do these priorities of yours entail?"

"I won't hurt anyone I care about," Draco said without a beat of hesitation. Severus sighed, "I can figure out how to keep myself in good standing without that. I'll learn this," he added with a vague gesture to the ghostly figure in front of him, "Because I shouldn't limit my options or capabilities, but... I will do this my way. I will." He said firmly. Severus said nothing, but there was a twitch of his lips before he finally nodded. Good. They understood one another.

Draco raised his wand. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I pranked you. This was a friends-to-enemies trope all along. Joking lol. I s2g I stressed myself out so much when I wrote that argument. When I went to reread it the other day I legit made myself some hot chocolate to chill out afterwards. They both definitely have holes in their sides of things, but given that they’re two teenagers who are trying to deal with shitty circumstances...it might take them a hot second to realize that. Year 6 is on the horizon. Pinky promise.
> 
> Quick favor if y'all want to help out. So, Draco's (well, Draco and Dumbledore's) plans should be like...90% clear by this point. There are some other things that will be cleared up next chapter (like why Draco can see thestrals), but if there is something that is still confusing you then it would be cool if you guys can mention it so I can double check that it IS something I address in the next chapter. Like I said, a lot of this is pre-written so I'm having a hard time remembering what my first draft entails. I'm gonna reread it tomorrow so if I had some notes on things to make sure are mentioned that would be cool - but no pressure. It's not your guys' job to keep me in check lol. 
> 
> But yeah. Get ready for the true romance… Neville/Draco. Not really, but their bromance is gonna be epic.


	12. Year Five (In Which Draco is Actually Invited to a Family Reunion)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ayyyy! I just remembered in like... chapter 3 or so I mentioned that a certain plotline would be revealed in chapter 12. Well here ya go! Tis here. 
> 
> ....once again, I'm gonna say sorry. Don't be too mad at me after this lol. Gonna give you one last heads up that there is still a smidge more angst here. Nothing like last chapter tho. Then it'll be more like....hurt/comfort until the war rolls around, but I really think you guys are gonna dig year 6 the most. So. Enjoy :D

Classes returned and brought a new set of problems. 

Firstly, and most pressingly, were his friends. Draco could tell Hermione was struggling the most. While Harry and Ron were both temperamental enough to just launch themselves into righteous (if not slightly hormone driven) anger, he could tell she was fighting the urge to discuss it all with him. In fact, he was pretty sure she would have if not for Ron and Harry being a united front on this particular matter.

The real test came during their first potions class. As they had all filed in, Draco watched Harry and Ron take their seats before waiting to see if Hermione would join Draco as she usually did. It was so ridiculously _childish_ that Draco almost wanted to snap at her not to bother at all. 

...almost. He didn’t mainly because she hesitated, eyes flickering over him for a moment. Draco’s ire rose back up when she stayed indecisive. Part of him just wanted to leave. It wasn’t like he needed to be here anyways with his grades -

A thunk interrupted his thoughts. He turned, a bit surprised to find that during Hermione’s internal crisis, Neville had come over and calmly put his things next to Draco’s. 

“Is this seat taken?” He asked. Draco blinked. His eyes moved to Hermione for a moment before a bit of petty vengeance came over him.

“No.” He said and moved over to make room for him. Hermione swallowed before shuffling to the next table. Shouldn’t have hesitated, should she? Draco turned to look at where Neville started setting up his cauldron. Neville…

“How was the rest of your Christmas?” He asked, growing quiet as Severus entered the room. 

“It was good,” Draco answered slowly and then smiled a bit to himself as he watched Neville set up his ingredients exactly the way Draco had taught them all in their first year. He had forgotten his spiteful attempts to get Severus’ attention. It was actually a little endearing that Neville still abided by eleven-year-old Draco’s rule of organizing ingredients. “How was yours?” He asked, genuinely curious. He wondered what a Longbottom Christmas might look like.

The class was… surprisingly enjoyable. Even without Hermione. Granted, Neville was no potioneer, but he wasn’t as horrid as Severus made him out to be. Besides, it was amusing to listen to him prattle on about some of the plants used in the potions in between anecdotes of his holidays. Severus cast them a few annoyed glances, but Draco’s equally fierce glare in return kept him away.

In the end, he decided he would stay paired with Neville during whatever classes they had together… which ended up a good thing because Zacharias Smith was… not happy with him.

“OI! MALFOY!”

“This should be fun.” He said and reached inside his robes to grab his wand. Neville looked over the Hufflepuff practically sprinting out of the transfiguration classroom warily.

“...is he upset with you too?”

“Yeah, but for a different reason. I’m beginning to think I’m not a pleasant person to be around.” Draco said lightly. Neville snorted. “Hey, Zach!” He called and Smith’s eyes darkened slightly at the nickname. 

“I know it was you, you bloody little-” He began and brought out his wand. A few of the students passing by froze when Draco returned the gesture. There was an awkward moment of silence where they simply stood there with their wands pointed at one another 

“I think we both know who would win in a duel, Zach,” Draco told him, “Walk away.” 

“Seamus Finnigan told me you turned into Umbridge’s pet,” he sneered back, “What? Are you going to tell her about the DA next?” He added in a low whisper. Draco tilted his head a bit.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He said smoothly. Smith’s eyes narrowed - nose wrinkling slightly as if he could destroy Draco with his mind alone.

“Yeah, and I bet you don’t know what happened to Theodore Nott either,” he spat back. _That_ caught Draco a little off-guard. He almost flinched away, but managed to recover and instead pressed his wand slightly into Smith’s neck as a silent warning. “I’m going to-”

“That’s enough.” Neville said and Draco was a little surprised by the amount of steel in his voice. “You’re causing a scene,” he told Zacharias and shoved his arm down. “Go.” He added. There were a few beats of silence in which Smith seemed too shocked to really respond. Draco couldn’t blame him. 

“He’s not what you think he is!” Zacharias hissed back and then shoved Draco. “I would know given I’ve had my tongue down his throat.” He added venomously. “You fucking-”

“I didn’t realize you could gauge my moral compass via my tonsils,” Draco interjected and lowered his wand with a scoff, “And, for all my faults, at least I’m not a Hufflepuff.” He said solemnly. Apparently this was where the line was drawn (honestly, you would think he would have thicker skin… everyone picked on Hufflepuffs). With a string of curses, he launched forward only to be cut off by a loud thwack and a high-pitched gasp. Zacharias fell back slightly, hand going to his mouth in alarm as he looked down to find blood falling from his nose. Draco stood frozen. Holy… mother… of…

“Let’s go.” Neville said calmly, pulling Draco’s arm to lead him away from where the crowd of students had been beginning to crowd around. McGonagall was peering out of her classroom, possibly sensing something that happened. 

“You… just punched him.” Draco said slowly. Neville shook out his hand.

“Yeah. I hope it was for a good reason,” he said and gave Draco a curious look, “What did you do?”

Draco shook his head. This was shaping up to be a strange day. 

“I told Umbridge that the Hufflepuff quidditch team is meeting in secret to practice,” he shrugged. Ever since Umbridge banned, well, everything, she had been recruiting him to play tattle-tale to all those breaking the rules. Neville looked at him in silent alarm. “I wouldn’t tell anyone about the DA.” He added with a sigh, “In fact, part of the reason I told her about Hufflepuff in the first place was to make sure she stayed off of Harry’s back.” He said, running a hand through his hair. “I knew Smith would be temperamental about it.” He added under his breath bitterly.

“You didn’t warn him?” Neville asked, “Weren’t you two dating?”

“Up until ten seconds ago… yes.” Draco shrugged, “And I didn’t tell him about it because I knew he would put up a fight and… I just didn’t want to deal with the whining.” He admitted. A mistake he would probably pay for later. He knew Zacharias was a strangely vengeful soul for someone sorted into a supposedly docile house. “Um, thank you for… you know, that.” He added. Neville shrugged. Draco wondered if he had ever thrown a punch before. Draco suspected he hadn't, but his casualness was so... just wildly surreal. “Not that I _needed_ any help, but…” he trailed off. 

Luckily, Neville didn’t press his awkward attempt of expressing gratitude. 

“I think he tries to pick a fight with whoever he fancies,” Neville said instead as they trudged through the courtyard. “Might explain why he’s such a nightmare to Harry.” He added thoughtfully. Draco laughed.

“I wish him the best of luck with _that,_ ” He said and Neville fixed him with a baffled look, “You know, since Harry’s straight.” Draco clarified in case that was somehow a question. Neville tilted his head, looking genuinely surprised by this information. 

“You think so?” He asked. Draco frowned. He was pretty sure as the resident gay friend that if anyone in their group felt even an inkling of none hetero feelings, he would be first informed. “He stares at boys a lot.”

“He stares at pretty much anything that confuses him.” Draco told him. There was a curious knot forming in his stomach though. It probably didn’t mean anything. Nope. Not at all. 

“If you say so,” Neville told him, “What did happen to Theodore Nott? Do you know why he switched schools?” He asked. Ugh. This. Draco tried to force the guilt away. If he couldn’t cope with what he’d done to Theo then he certainly wouldn't be able to cope with the other things he would be forced to do down the road. “We don’t have to talk about it.” Neville tacked on quickly. 

Why was he so bloody nice? 

“Thanks,” he sighed. He didn’t want to talk about Theo… or the confusing feelings he had brought up. Draco knew he cared about him… and he _did_. Deeply. A lot. If anything happened to him then Draco was pretty sure he might lose his mind. However, the past few months… well, Draco just hadn’t missed him.

Which sounded _awful_ , but he didn’t mean it in a nasty way! He still felt guilty for what he did. He didn’t like the idea of Theo getting hurt or upset. If he were still around then maybe Draco would want to talk to him. He definitely still liked being around Theo before everything went awry. It was just… Draco didn’t miss him. In fact, Draco was pretty sure he missed Hermione, Ron, and Harry more in the past few weeks than he had missed Theo all last term. 

It was a lot to unpack and Draco just didn’t have time for it. Especially since he had new plans. Dumbledore hadn’t contacted him yet to continue their little side missions… Draco suspected that the Order had kindly informed him of what happened over break.

However, that didn’t mean Draco couldn’t work on his own. Maybe he would take a page out of Harry's book and just screw the adults over.

After bidding Neville a goodbye (and a promise to go over their homework together) he headed towards the back of the library to where he saw a group of Slytherins. 

“Move.” Draco greeted, yanking Goyle’s ear in greeting. “I have things to discuss with Parkinson. All of you get out.” He said. The group gave a low rumble of disapproval. He turned to fix Montague with a long look, hoping he silently got the message. They weren’t _friends_ by any means, but given that Montague was fully convinced he was on the Death Eater path, he figured he was the best ally.

“Try not to poison her with your bloodtraitor ways,” he sneered. Draco gave a sarcastic smile in return. The others frowned in confusion before slowly rising as Montague jerked his head for them to follow him. Crabbe hesitated so Draco shoved him out of the seat before sticking his foot out to trip Daphne.

He waited until they left to turn back to where Pansy had ignored the entire interaction.

“So,” Draco said as he sat down. Pansy glanced up from her book to give a long sigh. “You look awful.” He told her flatly and let his books fall on the table in front of him.

“So do you,” she sneered back. Draco bit back a grin, “Heard your friends ditched you. So much for loyalty in the Gryffindor house.” She said and aggressively flipped a page. Draco waited. “What do you want?” she asked after ten seconds of silence.

“To help you.” 

“Go to Hell.” 

“You know, I still kept it.” Draco said, watching carefully as Pansy paused. Without waiting for her to ask, he pulled out the silver ring from his pocket and placed it on the table. Pansy stared. “I guess we were quite young,” he mused “But for my eighth birthday you proposed to me.” He said. Pansy flushed. It had been a childish, silly affair. At one point or another, their parents had told them that they would one day be married to a pureblood. Draco and Pansy hadn’t quite understood the idea of marriage… or the potential limitations to their future unions. All they really comprehended was that they were both purebloods and also friends… so obviously that meant they were probably going to be married. Draco gave a weak smile.

“And then… after we got tested….” he trailed off. 

Pansy knew the rest. How right before Hogwarts she had asked for the ring back since she knew Draco’s parents would probably never allow an engagement between them. Not until she had proven herself able to have children at least.

Draco had told her to bugger off and said flat out he wasn’t giving her the ring back. As far as romantic gestures went between a future gay Gryffindor and an iceblood Slytherin… it was actually pretty cute. Draco hadn’t wanted the ring for materialistic reasons (his parents would buy him hundreds of rings if asked), but instead it was his own little snotty way of saying he didn’t think any less of her after the incident.

“I’m sorry,” he said softly, “About what I called you before… and that I told everyone.” 

Pansy didn’t respond. It wasn’t the first time he had apologized since the second-year incident… but it was the first time she didn’t shoot it down.

“I’m going to have to be a Death Eater, aren’t I?” She sighed, shoulders slumping with tangible acceptance. “I always thought I would get to be like your mother. Just… supporting. Not necessarily fighting.” She grimaced and shook her head, “But if I can’t do anything useful..” She trailed off. Draco grimaced. The rest went unsaid. If she couldn’t give pureblood children then they would expect her to fight in order to prove her worth. 

“I know what you believe in,” Draco said slowly and bit the inside of his cheek, considering. “I don’t agree with it. Not anymore.” 

Pansy rolled her eyes. 

“How _noble_ of you-” She muttered, but Draco cut her off. 

“No, what’s _noble_ is me offering to help you anyways.” He said. Pansy’s mouth popped open - he could see the retort about to leave her lips before her brain caught up with her. Silence fell between them. “There’s a place you can go. Someplace safe during the war. It’s where I sent Theo.” He tacked on. Pansy jerked back.

“I _knew_ it was you-”

“Shut up. Nobody cares that you knew,” Draco sighed, “Look, nobody else on my side gets it. They aren’t going to offer you second chances. Part of me believes that maybe I should let you rot,” he told her and Pansy scowled. 

“Then why not?”

“I don’t know,” Draco grimaced, “Because I cared about you. Maybe I kind of still do. I just… think that maybe I would be in a similar position if I got sorted in Slytherin. Maybe if someone offered me a chance to leave…” he began and swallowed. He had no idea, in truth, what he would do or believe if things had been different. “I just want to give you a chance.” He decided to go with.

Pansy leaned back. She had gotten much prettier over the years, he realized. Her face had filled out so that the features weren’t as squashed together. Now that she wasn’t scowling at him, he could see that maybe (just maybe) someone might actually like her… you know, if you could get past her bigotry and bad attitude. 

“You’re playing a dangerous game,” she finally told him, “I can go to my parents right now and prove my worth to the Dark Lord-”

“Yeah, sure.” Draco rolled his eyes, “Tell him. I’m sure that will buy you a little time… maybe.” He shrugged, “But I plan on being one of his Death Eaters myself now.” He shrugged. Pansy blinked at that. “And I also plan on being on this side. Nobody is going to know for sure, which one I belong to.”

“I think the Dark Lord will figure it out.” Pansy said flatly. 

“He might,” Draco agreed, “But I know what I need to do to prove myself. If he wants me to torture someone. I will. If he wants me to kill someone. I will… and in the end,” he said, giving a slight wave of his hand, “That’s all he’ll really judge me on. If I say that I’ve been helping out Potter it’s because I’m a spy. So, go ahead and tell him.” He told her.

In reality, he would really prefer it if Pansy _didn’t_ tell anyone, but he would find a way to ensure her silence some other time. He could obliviate her too if needed. She seemed to buy the bluff at least. Her eyes were watching him - curiously drifting over his expression before setting her lips in a thin line.

“How do I know you won’t turn me over?” She finally asked, “If you are really so eager to prove yourself.” She told him quietly. Draco smiled weakly before picking the silver ring between them back up and sliding it on his finger. 

“I guess you’ll just have to trust me on that one.” 

Pansy tapped her fingers on the table. Once. Twice. 

“Buy me a ring too and you got yourself a deal.” She said and snapped her book closed. Draco smiled slightly to himself. “I still haven’t forgiven you.” She tacked on and dumped a few of her things into her bag. He nodded. That was fair. “And Draco?” She said, turning away towards the doors of the library. He tilted his head. “...thank you.”

* * *

“Please, don’t take this the wrong way, but...you’re really cute.” 

Draco snapped his teeth, giving a low growl at the insult. Neville only smiled in return before kneeling down next to him. He had been initially hesitant in letting anyone see his animagus form… but it _was_ only Neville. 

“Sorry,” he said and then pointed towards a tree, “It’s under there.” He added. Draco turned - there was a faint floral scent mixed in with berries. He followed it towards the tree Neville had pointed out and used a paw scratch at the dirt warily. He slipped down underneath so that he was inside the hollowed out trunk. He blinked a bit as his eyes adjusted to the dark. Where - ah, there it was. Using his teeth, he yanked out a few purple plants and squeezed back out of the tree trunk.

“Here.” Draco said after he shifted back and spit the remaining flowers out of his mouth. Neville beamed as he looked them over.

“Thanks! These are perfect. I’ll be able to germinate them, I think.” He mused and Draco shrugged as if he knew what that meant. Neville brought out a glass bottle to drop it in. “These are really good for protecting you from dark magic. I figured it would be good to start growing more so we have a good stock ready.” He explained. Draco gave an impressed nod. Good foresight.

“Do you need more?” He asked, brushing dirt from his hair. Neville laughed.

“No, you’re good. Thank you, though. I know your animagus form is supposed to be for other things.” He said. Draco rolled his eyes.

“I can use it for whatever I want,” He said and stood up, “Come on. I got muggle studies homework.” He sighed. Neville jumped up. While Neville himself wasn’t in muggle studies, he had very much grown fond of doing Draco’s homework with him. As a fellow pureblood, he found most of what muggles did as baffling as Draco did. “We’re learning about _movies._ ” Draco added.

“Movies?”

“It’s like a book that you watch,” Draco said, “Sometimes it shows real people, but there are also these drawings… right now we’re watching this new one about lions,” He frowned a bit, “The lions talk for some reason. I tried to watch it last night, but it made me mad.” He explained.

Neville blinked.

“A movie about lions upset you?”

“This hobo lion killed the king and told his son that it was his fault!” Draco said, already heating up at the memory, “So now this baby lion thinks he murdered his own father and Professor Burbage said this movie is supposed to be for muggle children. It is _not_ suitable for such an audience. No wonder muggles are always so anxious.” He grumbled. Neville gave a slow nod.

“I’ll watch it with you.” He suggested and despite himself, Draco found himself flushing a bit. Then frowning. Oh _God_. Not this again. 

“Sure.” He said and spent the rest of the day trying not to overthink the idea of them watching a muggle movie about lions together. It was just… Draco liked Neville. 

Draco _liked_ Neville. 

Maybe. Sort of? Draco didn't know what to make of it and the idea really made his head hurt.

So, Hermione, Harry, and Ron all were still mad at him. As aforementioned, Draco could tell Hermione was on the fence about the whole thing - no less angry, but wanting more of a confrontation whereas Harry and Ron were content to ignore him completely.

Now, Draco was angry as well. Except, it wasn't even anger. No, it was something else completely that he didn't understand and it had to do with Cho Chang. With Draco gone, Harry started spending an inordinate amount of time with her. Draco wasn't sure why it bothered him… Except it did. Badly. It was definitely those sexist thoughts again.

Look, it just felt as though he had been replaced somehow. As if Cho filled a role that Draco hadn't even been aware he had. It was confusing and quite frankly… Draco didn't care for it. 

Enter Neville. There was probably nobody in the world nicer than Neville. He swore his life on it. He was helpful and sweet and Draco was pretty sure he was helplessly and completely in love with him. Well, sort of. Draco didn't think he was interested in snogging him or doing any of that kind of stuff, but... well, it was confusing.

He had confided in Zoe and Tristam on this, but both seemed… Amused and unhelpful in this regard.

”You’re not in love with Neville, ” Sadie told him when he had joined the other Slytherins for a study session. “You just think you are because he is someone you would like to be in love with.” She said simply. As if anything she just said made sense.

“Yeah,” Tristam agreed, whirling his pencil around his fingers, “Neville is cute and all, but… okay, don’t take this wrong way, but he’s _too_ nice for you.” He said and Draco turned to him with a slight pout, “Draco, come on. You have a good heart, but I know you get some enjoyment being a prat most of the time. You need someone who can throw it right back at you.” He mused. Zoe gave a laugh as if that was somehow funny.

"I wonder where he can find someone like that," She chuckled. Draco ignored her.

“Maybe… I would stop being a prat if I was around someone who was nice all the time,” He suggested and the entire group laughed. “Fuck you.” He muttered and paused when Ron and Harry passed. He glanced up just in time to see Ron falter in his step - eyes flicking over him before giving a small smile. Draco returned it hesitantly. 

Then they were both gone. 

Whatever. Draco didn’t care. Sighing, he gathered his things and gave Zoe and the others a wary goodbye so he could maybe mope in peace. It just wasn’t _fair_. He understood why they were mad. Really. He did… but why was he _still_ being punished for it? The thought made him angry as he began to wander aimlessly throughout the castle.

“So…your friends suck.”

Draco blinked, looking up from where he had been storming through the corridors to find a boy watching him. Slytherin… Of course. Draco rolled his eyes, reaching for his dignity clumsily as he straightened up to face him. 

“Blaise.” He greeted coolly. It had been years since they'd spoken, but Draco definitely never forgotten his childhood best friend. The boy smiled. “What do you want, Zabini?” he asked, rectifying the use of the first name. Blaise laughed.

“I thought you looked upset.”

“I’m not upset.”

“Oh?” He asked and stepped forward. Draco didn’t move – instead eyeing him warily. “Look, I know we haven’t been friendly lately, but given the circumstances…” He trailed off. Draco sighed.

“Are you trying to recruit me?” He asked. Blaise raised an eyebrow. “I’ll have you know that I’m discussing my potential reconciliation with Graham Montague, but thanks.” He muttered and went to turn away. Blaise grabbed his arm.

“That’s not what I meant.” Blaise told him, “Listen… I…” He began and trailed off, suddenly looking uncertain. Draco waited. Blaise had always been a striking person – probably his mother’s blood. Now though… the doubt in his expression seemed to render him more human than Draco had ever seen him. “I can trust you, right?” He asked. 

Draco had no idea how to respond to that. Not that Blaise gave him much of a chance.

“I know he’s back, Draco. My mother said as much, but… I don’t want to fight.” He said quietly. “For either side. Pansy said… she said you…” He swallowed, “She said you were going to help her.” He told him, “Please.” He added, “None of my family were even Death Eaters,” he said quickly, “My mother and I always agreed with the principles, but-”

“Shut it,” Draco told him, a little alarmed by how quickly he had lost all poise. It was a bit pathetic, actually. Blaise’s mouth snapped closed. “Look, I can help you, but I need you to help me first.” He said slowly, running his hand through his hair. “What do you know of unbreakable vows?” He asked. 

Blaise frowned. It really said something that Draco was waiting for him to answer ‘that they’re unbreakable’ because _that’s_ how much time he spent with Harry and Ron. 

“I… am familiar with most aspects of it.” He said. Draco rolled his eyes. He had figured out years ago that there was a reason Mrs. Zabini’s husbands kept dying. “Why?”

“Because if I’m going around protecting you, Pansy, and whoever else… I’m going to need some proof you won’t make a mess of things for me.” He said. Blaise’s eyes widened slightly. 

“But we’d die-”

“Only if you broke the vow,” Draco shrugged, “It’s not like I’m going to ask you to learn to juggle fire, Blaise. Just don’t betray me. That shouldn’t be too hard, right?” He asked, giving him a once over. Blaise shifted slightly. “Look, I’m not risking anything. Either you teach me the spell or take your chances with the Dark Lord.” He said and put a hand on the side of his arm. “Which do you think is safer?”

Blaise slowly shook his head.

“You really should have been in Slytherin.” He muttered, but gave a nod anyways. 

Thus, began a new chapter in Draco’s illustrious Hogwarts career.

It was easier to ignore the fact his friends hated him now that he had Neville. It also helped that in addition to his Slytherin friends, he had Pansy and Blaise now as well… even if it was a rocky relationship at best. Pansy had even agreed to be cordial with Neville, which was _truly_ a miracle in of itself. Since they were in different houses they tended to eat outside by the lake. Other things came naturally. Homework and what not. Blaise would occasionally stop by to talk - he discovered that Blaise was actually a lovely conversationalist, which was a bit unusual for beautiful people (one example being Harry). 

It was… nice. Neville trusted him. Blaise and Pansy accepted him (admittedly, because he was saving their asses… but still). Tristam, Sadie, and Zoe stayed loyal as ever. It was a nice feeling, actually. 

Not that everyone approved.

“I don’t like it,” Harry was insisting to Ron and Hermione one night. Draco paused by the doorway to the common room to listen. “Zabini is up to no good. Are we just going to… leave him alone with Draco? Or _Parkinson?_ ”

“Are we supposed to stop it?” Hermione asked. Draco leaned against the doorway. Good question, Hermione. He waited for the answer.

“He’s probably poisoning Draco’s mind with all that pureblood nonsense again.” Harry said, ignoring the question. He bit his tongue. To his surprise, Ron cleared his throat.

“Harry…” He said slowly and there was a beat of silence, “Mate, I think the reason they’re spending so much time together is because he’s upset with us… or, more likely, is he thinks we’re still upset with him.” 

Obviously. Still, Draco appreciated Ron voicing it. 

“So?” Harry asked, voice rising. “Why can’t he spend time with someone other than blood purists? Why _Zabini?”_ He asked venomously and got up, pacing.

“He’s definitely spending more time with Neville than Zabini.” Ron scoffed. Harry said something under his breath that Draco couldn’t quite catch, but didn’t sound nice either way. 

“Alright,” Hermione sighed and shut her book, “If I give you an answer will you drop this?” She asked. Draco frowned. How many times had Harry ranted about this? Clearly enough for her to be exasperated by the topic. Harry gave a shrug. “My guess is that Draco is tired. He’s tired of always being accused of being a traitor by Slytherins, by Gryffindors, by his own family, and now by us.” 

"He _did_ betray us!"

"Nobody is saying he didn't mess up. He should have told us from the beginning, but Harry... this was _Dumbledore's_ idea. Not Draco's. He's just trying to do the best with what he has and maybe if... I'm not taking sides or saying he's right, but maybe if we were more understanding of the situation-"

“You.” Ron interjected. The pair turned to him, “Just saying… it was mainly you, mate.” He grumbled, wincing under Harry’s glare. “I’m just _saying!_ I was angry too, but I kind of get it. His parents are awful, but clearly if he wants to keep them safe after all they've done to him... I mean, that must mean something, right? I can't imagine letting my mum and dad die even if they did do all that. Besides, we can’t ignore him forever-”

“He _lied_ to us! He manipulated me and now he wants to be a Death Eater?” He asked, “We don’t get to know anything about this bloody war, but he gets to meet with Dumbledore and know the fact Voldemort is bouncing in my bloody head before I do?” He said, voice rising. 

“And that’s the _issue_ , Harry. You aren’t even that angry at him! You’re just upset that he was entrusted with information _you_ weren’t.” Hermione said and ran a hand through her hair. “Listen, I know Draco hasn’t always been the kindest, but he’s still always stuck by our side. He’s our friend and you basically told him that you thought he would betray us like Pettigrew betrayed your parents.”

“And Sirius was in a very similar situation at our age,” Ron cut in calmly, “So Draco knows that it’s personal considering you know someone else with an awful Slytherin family-”

“That’s different!” Harry burst out, “Sirius hated his family!”

“Think about what you’re asking him to do!” Hermione said, voice quickly losing patience. “He’s chosen our side and that still isn’t enough for you? You want him to go around hating his parents to prove what exactly? What would that prove that we don’t already know? Harry, this is awful for him already. He’s on the opposite side of the war of people he loves and he is so scared that he’s willing to put himself in danger for both them and us. You’re being really unkind about this.” She said.

… Hermione was a good friend after all. Draco pressed his head against the wall. He was so, so glad he had accepted her ridiculous proposition all those years ago. He had no idea where he would be without her.

"He was wrong to lie to us," Hermione said after a deep breath, "And he went to far with all those things he said to you... but if we want to be involved with what he's doing then we have to prove we can tolerate it." She said. Draco nodded to himself. Swallowing, he pulled himself away to march inside the common room. The conversation immediately went silent.

“Thank you.” He said, looking at Hermione for a moment… and Ron too. He was surprisingly comforting as well. Then he went up to dormitories with every intention to sleep his woes away.

Only sleep didn’t come easily. Not with so much to consider resting at the back of his mind. Rolling over, he grabbed the red quill hidden underneath his robes and a piece of parchment. 

_Need to meet soon - DM_

He waited, watching the golden ink disappear before bubbling back to life a moment later.

_Tomorrow_

* * *

“Good morning, professor.”

Umbridge glanced up from her tea to smile at him. She was sitting behind her desk, cooing over a silver tabby who was drinking milk out of a saucer. Draco noticed that this particular tabby also seemed to have an interest in knocking open Umbridge’s notebook with small mewls. He bit back a smile. Perfect.

“Ah, Mr. Malfoy!” Umbridge said and gestured him to sit down in front of her. Draco stepped over some other frilly decorations to sit in the plush armchair by her desk. “What do I owe the pleasure?”

“Blood quills,” he told her and Umbridge paused, “Or, I suppose black quills are the proper name for them, aren’t they?” He asked. The tabby’s head jerked up at the word, eyes moving away from Umbridge’s notebook to instead fix him with an intense stare.

“Is this regarding Mr. Potter’s punishment?” She said slowly. Draco laughed.

“No, miss. Believe it or not, I need one for… personal reasons.” He decided. Umbridge’s brows went higher - almost reaching her hairline.

“Personal reasons,” she repeated softly, looking him over. Draco smiled a bit before nodding. Wordlessly, she reached into her desk, pulling out a bit of parchment before sliding it over to him. “Well, before we talk more on that, I do have a letter from your mother.” She told him. 

Draco’s heart stopped. He looked at the parchment between them - his mother’s handwriting scrawled out his name on the front. He picked it up for a moment, running his hand over the stationary. His parents always bought the special parchment from Diagon Alley. 

“Thank you,” he said and tried not to look overwhelmed or emotional by the letter. “I’m excited to be on speaking terms with them once more.” He said, heart thudding. Umbridge smiled fondly. 

“I’m glad to hear it,” she told him, patting his arm. “Now what’s this about a black quill, my dear? Why would you want such a thing?” She asked. Draco considered. He couldn’t tell her the real reason why… though he was sure she would approve. After a couple moments of consideration he looked back to meet her eyes.

“I think it will be helpful for reconciling me with my parents.” He told her calmly, “I’m afraid I can’t be more specific than that, professor.” He said. Umbridge hummed, giving a tight smile as she folded her hands in front of her, pressing her knuckles to her lips deep in thought. 

A few moments of tense silence passed between them.

“Well,” she finally said and reached into her desk once more. The tabby watched where she reached very carefully, “I can hardly keep families apart now, can I?” She asked. Draco’s smile widened as she pulled out a black quill. “You may keep that one,” she added to him, “I’m quite sure I’ll be acquiring many more soon enough.” She told him and the tabby hissed suddenly, swiping at her. Umbridge jumped. “Oh, what is my darling?” she cooed at the cat as it hissed at her. “It’s alright, pretty girl.” She continued. 

Draco grinned at the tabby. 

“Is this your cat, professor?” He asked.

“Oh, I found the poor thing wandering about the castle a few weeks ago,” she said, picking it up to kiss the top of its head. Draco had to mask his laugh into a cough. “Normally, she comes and goes as she pleases… I’ve named her Toodles.” Umbridge added. Draco gave a stoic nod. 

“It suits her.”

“She normally is so sweet. All she tends to do is play with my things.” She said. Draco gave an approving nod. 

“May I?” He asked and Umbridge nodded, holding the cat out to him.

Oh, he was _so_ going to regret this later. 

“She’s _adorable_ ,” he said, not caring that he was signing a death warrant, “I hear cats are such… clever creatures.” He added, bopping the end of the cat’s nose. It glowered back at him with an ungodly amount of rage. “I would never wish to make an enemy with one.”

“They are such independent things,” Umbridge agreed. Draco gave another solemn nod. Indeed they were… “Is there anything else you needed to talk about, sweetheart?” She asked. Draco shook his head, standing up. He had all he needed.

“No, miss. Thank you again.” He said holding up the blood quill, “I’ll be sure to put it to good use,” He told her. She nodded at him, taking another sip of her tea before going back to cooing over the cat. Unable to help himself, Draco gave one more small wave, "Bye, Toodles!" He added brightly and let himself chuckle when he finally made it out of the office. Oh, boy. He turned a corner towards the dungeons.

“How are occlumency lessons?” He called as he walked into Severus’ office, flicking his wand to shut the doors behind him. Severus didn’t look surprised at his arrival. Draco dumped the knives Andromeda had given him for Christmas on his desk alongside the blood quill.

“He’s lazy,” was all Severus offered. Draco narrowed his eyes.

“Is he?” He asked suspiciously, “He seemed alright when I was teaching him.” He said. Severus didn’t answer. “Please tell me you’re taking this seriously. Dumbledore said it is important for him to learn-”

“I will not be lectured by a fifteen-year-old,” he said calmly and picked up the black quill, “Why do you have this?”

“You know telling him to clear his mind over and over again won’t work.” 

“Then perhaps you should resume teaching him. Except, ah, that’s right. You’ve been kicked out of your little posse, haven’t you?” He asked with a slight taunt. “Now, tell me why you have this.” He repeated. Draco gritted his teeth.

“You keep saying I need to go to extremes to prove my loyalty,” he said, “I’m covering all my basis.” He said, pulling back his sleeve. He had stopped on the way to test the quill out a few times. The words were only lightly carved into his skin - definitely not enough to scar… yet. He reached out to show Severus.

_Sanctimonia Vincet Semper_

“Purity will always conquer,” he translated. “Those are the words on your family crest, is it not?” He asked, calmly. Draco nodded. “...Bellatrix would like that.” Severus muttered and crossed his arms over his chest. “She never liked me. Never trusted me completely. She’ll be displeased that I’ve spent all this time as Potter’s teacher without killing him. You though…”

“Won’t she be displeased I haven’t killed Harry?”

“It will make her hesitate,” Severus agreed, “But if you show enough potential she’ll look over it. After all, she does like to take credit for training the Dark Lord’s more talented Death Eaters.” He mused and gave a slight nod at Draco’s hand. “Try to make it scar. I'll give you something so you won't feel the pain.” 

“Thank you,” Draco said, tapping his fingers against the desk. “And the knives?” He added, nodding to where the gift laid. “Andromeda said only those within my bloodline can use it. Does that mean Bellatrix and my mother could both use them? Sirius?” He asked. Severus’ lip curled at the mention of Sirius’ name, but didn’t comment on it.

“Anyone can use them to stab someone,” he said, picking up a knife with consideration, “But only someone with Black blood can use the magic in them. I would guess Bellatrix and even the dog could use it. You’ll have to be sure to keep a close eye on them.” He warned. 

Draco nodded. That was what he was afraid of. 

“How do I access their magic?” He asked as Harriet peered out from Draco’s bag to slither up and absently poke at the knives. Severus ignored her. 

“Let’s find out.”

* * *

In fairness... they hadn't meant to blow it up.

Draco wasn't sure what about the situation was so damn funny to him. Maybe he was finally losing it. All he knew was that one minute he was putting gillyweed into a cauldron and the next he was covered in blue goo and Neville's robes were on fire. There were several seconds where they just stared at one another before Draco started laughing.

"There is something evil and chaotic in you," Neville chuckled as he finished stomping out a flame, "Well, I guess that means we can't boil gillyweed and pearl dust together." He mused. Draco laughed harder. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," he said through low chuckles as he tried to catch his breath, "I just... it feels nice to mess up sometimes. You know, when it doesn't blow up your face," he said and then paused, "Well, actually... I guess it did. Literally." He mused as he glanced at the cauldron and cackled again. Neville shook his head and picked some goo out of Draco's hair.

"Maybe we should take a break from experimenting," Neville told him and checked his hands, "You look like you're healing up quite nicely. Did the wraps I give you work?" He asked and Draco glanced down at his hands. They had healed pretty quickly per Sirius' advice on limiting his transformations and Neville's clever use of wrapping wiggentree leaves around his knuckles.

"Yeah," Draco said and showed him his freshly healed cuts. Neville instead took his hand to examine the deep words carved into his hand and pursed his lips, "Oh, uh, yeah. Death Eater thing." He said, shrugging, "I need them to think I'm a fanatic and crazy." He said and waited for Neville to throw back that he was a fanatic and crazy.

"You're going to have that on you for the rest of your life," Neville told him instead, "Are you sure you're going to be able to look at that everyday?"

...well then. That was much more serious than he had anticipated. Neville tilted his head expectantly.

"I can handle it," he said and gently pried his hand from Neville's, "Are you sure you don't want to keep going? I bet we can get it if we adjust the measurements a bit. Maybe it was too much pearl dust." He mused, wrinkling his nose as he peered into the cauldron. Neville shook his head, a smile playing a his lips.

"Maybe we should switch gears," Neville told him gently, "Do you have any muggle studies homework? Or maybe we should eat? You've eaten today, right?" He asked. Draco nodded. He opened his mouth to tell him so only to gasp, "What?"

"You don't know about muggle things!" Draco said and Neville lifted a brow, "Here, I'm going to show you what I've learned." He said, flicking his wand to clean up the mess behind them, "Don't worry about the toaster - it's scary, but harmless. Ted also showed me a blender and it's what muggles use to make food into liquid. I still don't quite understand... why they do that," he said slowly, brows wrinkling, "Do they have trouble with solids? I can't imagine why they would-"

"How many peppermint patties have you had?" Neville asked. Draco paused. He wasn't planning on going into his animagus form today so he had been devouring all the sweets he hadn't been able to eat recently. He had a few this morning... then a couple more as snacks... also during lunch...

He might be having a bit of a sugar rush.

"I don't remember." He finally decided, "But if I can survive sixteen butterbeers then peppermint patties won't kill me." He said stoically and pulled on Neville's hand, "Now, here's the thing about muggle stuff. It's very dangerous. Not to them exactly, but to us." He explained, trying to find the words Ted had used to explain why muggle technology and magic didn't tend to coincide. "They have electricity and what not. It doesn't tend to react well with magic. That's why Mr. Weasley's car went crazy - well, his car doesn't have electricity - but the same thing. Sort of. I actually don't know." He admitted.

"How does the car move with out electricity?"

"...listen, I'm not Sherlock Holmes. I don't have all the answers."

"Who?"

"He's this wickedly smart muggle," Draco told him, taking out a few more peppermint patties to unwrap, "Hermione and Harry think it's funny that I'm so impressed by him, but you should see some of the stuff he figures out. I want to meet him." He said and popped one in his mouth. Neville went to open his mouth and respond, but was stopped by Ginny appearing out of nowhere to attack them.

And by attack them he meant she jumped onto Draco's back because apparently Molly had been too busy with her other children to teach this one basic social greetings.

"Why?" He asked as she brought her arms around his neck so he could carry her around like an idiot down the winding corridor towards the muggle studies classroom.

"You stole Neville from me," she said simply and beamed over Draco's head, "Hi, Neville."

"Hey, Ginny," Neville laughed, "Have you heard of Sherlock Holmes?" He asked. Ginny (who apparently was not getting off of him) gave a slight shrug.

"Ron mentioned him. He's this bloke that Draco thinks is great and he wears a dumb hat," she informed them wisely. Draco bristled. The hat was not _dumb_. Ron was dumb. The hat was very sensible... sort of. Okay, Draco didn't understand the hat either, but that was beside the point. "Where are we going?"

"To the muggle studies room," Draco grumbled, "You were not invited-"

"Oh, she can come!"

" _Neville!"_ Draco groaned. Ginny laughed and then leaned over to kiss the side of Draco's head, "Oh - come on. Knock it off!" He told her with a few choice words under his breath. "I don't deserve to be tortured like this." He said under his breath, "Shouldn't you be practicing for our game?" He tried. Ginny hummed.

"I'm already better than you."

"Nonsense."

"It's true!"

"No, you little twat. I-"

"I think you're both very talented." Neville interrupted and pointed, "Look. There's the muggle studies room." He said in hopes to redirect their attention. Draco wanted to point out that he was well aware of where the classroom was, but was distracted by Ginny chuckling and hopping off of him. "Come on, let's see this blender thing." He added, pulling Draco in when he tried to continue his muttered argument with Ginny.

"A blender?" She asked as she skipped towards the door, "What's that?"

"It makes food into liquid according to Draco."

"Why would they need such a thing?" Ginny asked, peering into the classroom. Most of the muggle artifacts they were studying were up on displays with some of the more dangerous ones surrounded by no-touch charms. Naturally, Ginny decided to go try and touch those ones. Neville, on the other hand, put his hands behind his back like he was at a museum to look around. "By the way, I heard you decked someone, Nev." Ginny called, picking up a calculator and trying to punch something in.

"...maybe." Neville winced, "But it was... I mean, I wasn't doing it to be nasty!"

Ginny looked at him with utter adoration.

"I know you didn't," she laughed, "But it's still brilliant. Draco?"

"It was brilliant," he agreed. Neville flushed. "It was Zacharias Smith-"

"Good _choice_ , Neville!" Ginny praised and then paused, "Wait. Didn't you, like, lower you standards a ridiculous amount and date him?" She asked Draco. He scowled at her. "What? He's a git," she said wisely, "I once had to hex him for talking too much bullshit." She said and then turned to Neville, "But I've never punched him. Genius. Really groundbreaking work there." She nodded, giving him an applause. Draco stopped his search for the blender to join in.

"I didn't do it to be nasty..." Neville repeated, rubbing the back of his neck. Draco and Ginny unanimously laughed at him.

"We were kind of dating," Draco said, answering her previous question, "It was... really, it was just kind of a distraction." He admitted. At this, Ginny paused to look at him for a moment - eyes softening a fraction before nodding. She didn't ask him to go into more detail, which he appreciated. Draco went back to rummaging among the trunks of muggle items until - aha! Draco brought out the bladed vase and set it on a table.

"Oh, I've seen dad bring home one of those." Ginny said as Draco summoned a platter of food, "Bill thought it was an ancient torture device. We tried to use it on Percy, but nothing really happened. Well, other than him getting angry." She mused and jumped up on one of the table to try and touch it. Draco slapped slapped her hand away. In turn, she poked him in the eye, which Draco felt was _not_ a proportionate response.

"Well, how does it work?" Neville asked, gently grabbing Ginny's arm to keep her from continuing to pester him. Draco stuck out his tongue at her before turning back to the gadget.

"It's called a blender," he told them when Neville came closer, "You plug the tail - it isn't actually a tail though - you put it in the wall. That's where the electricity is." He said and leaned over to plug it in. Neville and Ginny watched curiously, "Okay, then you put the stuff you want to blend in. What would you like to blend?" He asked. Neville looked over the plate of food.

"Uh, cookies!"

"My bad decisions." Ginny said solemnly. Neville frowned at her for a moment before turning back to the platter of the food and pointing.

"Oh, and maybe some grapes."

"Three of my brothers."

"Can we put a whole banana in?"

"The voice in the back of my head that keeps telling me to kill people."

Draco and Neville both turned to her.

"Kidding," Ginny grinned, "That hasn't happened since my first year."

Draco opened the blender to put Neville's requests in before turning back to Ginny.

"I really wish I knew how to help you with this very clear cry for help," he told her. She stuck out her tongue while putting an arm on Neville's shoulder.

"I'm not the one with pureblood propaganda carved into my hand." She said and Draco looked down. You know what? Fair enough. He nodded and turned on the blender.

* * *

His mother’s letter from Umbridge consisted of only a handful of words.

_Meet me by clock tower. 4 pm sharp._

That was it. Nothing more. Draco was admittedly torn between hurt and excitement. On one hand, he was going to see her. Talk to her. Hug her. The idea was thrilling in itself. Still, he had… hoped there would be a bit more enthusiasm. 

Now, even as Draco waited in his best set of robes with his hair neatly combed and heart racing, part of him wondered if this had all been some cruel joke. He didn’t think his mother would do such a thing to him, but… he looked cautiously around the clock tower.

“Draco.”

He whipped around. There. 

“You came.” He said, and his throat tightened at the sight of her. She wore a black cloak with the hood hiding more of her face, but he knew it was her. He could see wisps of pale blonde hair peeking out and recognized the diamond ring on her left hand. 

“Oh,” She said and moved towards him, arms opening. He rushed in without thinking. “Merlin, look at you.” She told him, voice shaking slightly as she buried her face into her shoulder. She still smelled like lavender. He hadn’t noticed how much he had missed the scent of her soap. “You’re taller than me now.” She chuckled and reached up to place a hand on his cheek.

“Yeah,” he agreed. Four years would do that. “Hi.” He managed and grabbed her hand. 

“Hi.” She said softly and her smile was nothing but warmth. Draco felt as though he could drown in it. The clock rang above them and the smile immediately disappeared into one of dismay. “We need to talk.” She sighed, lowering her hand. Draco frowned.

“Right,” he said, “Umbridge has mentioned ways to regain my name-”

“No,” his mother interrupted and Draco paused. No? What did she mean? _No?_ “Draco, you need to stop this,” She said firmly and he shook his head. Stop this? Stop _what?_ “It was hard enough to convince your father…” 

“I don’t understand,” Draco said slowly. “Convince him of what?” He asked.

His mother grimaced, looking at him with solemn eyes. A strange pull was hinting at his stomach. Uncomfortable. He looked back at her. No. No, she…

“Father came by Hogwarts,” Draco said slowly, “He kept getting involved. I had to make him stop. You never did. You wrote at first, but you never...” He trailed off and swallowed. “What did you convince him of exactly?” He repeated. At that, Narcissa closed her eyes. 

All too clearly, Draco felt a surge of understanding towards Harry’s anger. If this was what true betrayal felt like… he understood Harry never wanting to speak to Draco ever again.

“You?” He asked, voice breaking a bit. She tried to raise a hand to his cheek, but he took a step back. “I thought he convinced _you_ to disown me. Not the other way around!” He said, voice rising slightly. “Why? Because I was sorted into _Gryffindor?”_ He asked, voice shaking. “Does that one thing really mean so much to you-”

“No!” Narcissa interrupted, “No, of _course_ it doesn’t-”

“Then why? You’ve come all the way here to tell me to stop trying? To stay away-”

“Of course, I want you to stay away, Draco!” His mother threw back, voice almost a shout, but not quite. He stared at her, exhaling slowly. There it was. “This is your only way out. The only chance you’ll ever get.” She told him, taking a step towards him. Draco shook his head. He didn’t understand. He didn’t. “You think I want you to live as your father and I have? Darling, I never wanted that life for you. To be trapped by your name and your house and… _us!”_ She said, gesturing around wildly. 

"You didn't want...? Why did you _have_ me then?" Draco asked, throwing his hands up. It wasn't as thought his existence had been thrust upon him. What was the _point_ of having an heir if you didn't want them to have the life you did? He waited as his mother took a long breath. She opened her mouth a few times before snapping it shut.

"We thought," she began, voice cracking, "We thought it could be different for us. That we could maybe do things... differently. Still within tradition, of course, but... maybe give our children more free reign. We did try, Draco. When we had Cassi it felt like a sign. Then we had you and I was so certain we could raise you better than my parents had. Your father and Bellatrix were meant to be married," she said and Draco nodded. Sirius had told him years ago, "When him and I met though... we fought for each other. I wanted you and Cassi to marry whatever pureblood you wanted. To not have to conform quite as much as we had to in the past."

"That sounds great," Draco told her stiffly, "But instead you disowned me over something I had no control over."

"Draco, please," his mother told him and tried to move closer towards him. Draco watched her warily, "Cassiopeia was... she was only the beginning of it. It was a sign we had overstepped what we thought we could do. We had assumed, at least, you and the Parkinson girl would one day fall in love. You two were both so close as children... We figured we could at least grant you the freedom to marry someone you would love, but then... the tests came back..." She muttered, "Everything we tried to give you just soured."

There was a lot Draco objected to about... well, pretty much everything she just said, but the idiot part of him (you know, the Gryffindor part) wondered idly if she knew he was gay. He didn't have a chance to ask since she kept going.

“The second you told me you were sorted in Gryffindor,” She swallowed, “I knew you had a chance. Maybe if you were free of our name and you could just see how happy Andromeda was… I assumed you would want to follow her example-”

“Yes, but I wanted you _with_ me.” Draco frowned, “Why couldn’t you just-”

“The Dark Lord has risen, Draco. We always feared that might be the case and acted accordingly. It is one thing to stretch tradition slightly, but if your father and I had gone about telling you to live as you pleased…” She took a long breath, “We would all be dead already. Lucius is already a Death Eater. I am already his wife. Our fates are sealed.” She said and reached out to him again. “Just take advantage of all you’ve been given… stay with your friends. Stay safe. _Please_.” She said. Draco swallowed. This… felt like a thousand paper cuts happening all at once.

“Mother, I can help you,” Draco said, shaking his head. “I just need you to work with me.” He told her. Narcissa gave a tight smile. “It isn’t too late to switch sides.” He added, a bit desperately.

Desperate. There was that word again. Maybe it applied to him after all.

“Draco…” She said softly and took a long breath, “I know what side I belong to. I raised you to believe in blood purity because I do think that is how our society should be. It is what would keep our world standing.” She said. Draco clenched his jaw. “But I won’t pretend like I haven’t noticed that… bloodtraitors. Mudbloods. They do seem a great deal happier than us in some ways, don’t they?” She mused and looked at the ground. “And… I want you to be happy. Even if it sends our world crumbling.” She told him, tilting her head a bit. Draco could see regret in her eyes.

“I want you to be happy too,” Draco said, “Please. Just reclaim me and I can help-”

“You’ve certainly learned to argue, haven’t you?” Narcissa scoffed, though there was a smile hinting at her lips, “I would have thought Andromeda might have jinxed that out of you.”

“If you object so much to how I turned out,” he said coldly, “Then perhaps you should have had more of a hand in my upbringing.” He said and pulled away from her. “If you really want me to stay with Andromeda… you must think her side will win,” he said and looked her up and down, “And you expect me to leave you and father to your fates? To be okay with whatever happens to you?”

“Draco-”

“You are still my family!” He shouted and then looked away. Why did nobody seem to understand this? “And it isn’t just you anymore.” He whispered to the ground, “If Voldemort wins then Hermione dies. Ted dies. Ron and Andromeda will be _lucky_ if he kills them. Neville and Sirius and Remus and Nymphadora and.. Harry-” He cut himself off. “Sometimes, I don't even care who wins. I just want them to survive. For _you_ to survive…” He shook his head, “I can’t stand by and do nothing as those I love are taken from me. So if you won’t help then I’ll find another way.” He told her.

The wind blew. 

“Then find another way,” Narcissa told him, “I won’t be responsible for your death-”

“I won’t be responsible for yours,” Draco shot back and tried to take one more breath, “I don’t understand why you can’t just let me hide you.” He said. Narcissa didn’t answer. Apparently, upon deciding he couldn’t be reasoned with, she turned away. Draco gave a laugh that sounded half a whisper and half-hysterical. 

"At least tell me if it's true!" He called and Narcissa stopped walking. She turned slightly, not quite looking back at him, but almost, "I know Rita Skeeter isn't the most truthful reporter, but..." He trailed off. At that, she turned completely to look at him. Draco waited. The wind kept blowing, almost as if throwing the words away so that they could only sit in silence, robes rippling in the wind.

"No," she finally said, "There was... there was a moment where... where I thought maybe..." She began and Draco blinked, heart stuttering to a stop. Oh. "It wouldn't have been on purpose, Draco. After Cassi, you are my only child. Until the day I die." She said and looked away, "I would never replace you."

Maybe that should have made him feel better. It didn't.

"I'll become one of you if I have to," he told her, "Maybe a double agent, a spy - I don't care. I'm going to do if you won't let me help you." He said. It felt a bit childish to be threatening like this. He just... he _couldn't_. He couldn't let them die.

And maybe he was desperate - he was so desperate he couldn't even breathe. He was desperate and selfish and bad. A bad person. A bad person trying to help bad people who he _knew_ had hurt others. He shouldn't be helping them. Especially if they didn't even want his help. The best thing he could do is choose the right side of the war and live the life his mother so clearly wanted for him. Why was he making this difficult? Why did he _care?_ She betrayed him. She left him. She wouldn't do the right thing even now.

Why wouldn't she just switch sides? Why wouldn't she just do the fucking right thing?

"No," she finally said and shook her heads, "If I have any say in it you will not set foot in my home as a Death Eater unless the Dark Lord himself has a wand at your throat." She said, "I don't care what Dumbledore tells you. I won't have you die like that." She said simply and walked across the courtyard without so much as a goodbye.

“It was nice seeing you too!” He shouted, voice breaking at the end. He turned and hit the clock tower. All the frustration inside of him seemed to bubble over and break at once as he screamed in frustration. 

The wind continued to blow.

Hermione came around first. Of course, she did. He wasn’t sure how she knew that he needed her… but there she was. 

Draco was watching another muggle movie - this time alone because Neville apparently had a life outside of him - when she walked in and plopped down next to him. They stayed silent for a few minutes.

“Genies don’t look like that,” He finally said, with a nod towards the television. Hermione glanced at the blue figure hopping around the screen. “They also don’t sing.”

He wasn’t sure why he said it. Draco was fairly certain she knew what genies looked like. Hermione moved a little closer. There were a couple beats of silence.

“Are you okay?” She whispered. Draco nodded. “You… you’re crying.” She told him cautiously. Draco gave a small laugh as he wiped a few wayward tears away.

“It’s a sad movie,” he told her and gave a vague gesture, “Jafar just wants a promotion. I think he deserves it.” He sniffed. Hermione closed her eyes and smiled. 

“He’s trying to kill everyone.”

“It’s a good work ethic,” Draco said and when Hermione hugged him, fully turned into her to hug her back. “I’m so tired, ‘mione.” He said into her shoulder. 

“I know.”

“I don’t know what I'm doing,” He admitted and pulled back, “I’m _trying_ ,” he said, “I swear I’m trying. I've been trying and I... I don't think anyone believes me because I keep messing up, but I am - I _am-_ ” He said, cutting himself and she nodded. For some reason, she looked like she was about to cry too. 

“I’m sorry,” she said and shook her head, “I’m so sorry.” She repeated and then cleared her throat when her voice caught. “I don’t know what what I'm doing either,” she said and wiped some of her own tears away, “I don’t want to fight in a war. I don’t want him to come after my parents… and I can’t do anything either. I just have to _wait_ for it. Knowing he’s getting stronger. I… I’m _sorry,”_ she managed and Draco pulled her into another hug.

“What the bloody Hell is _that?”_

Draco jumped, a little taken aback by Ron’s voice. He turned to find him staring in bewilderment not at them… but the television. “Is that supposed to be a ghost?” He asked curiously as he looked at the genie. He glanced down at them (both with tear tracks down their face). “Long day?” 

“I found out my mother was the one who disowned me,” Draco shrugged as he sniffed slightly, “And Jafar isn’t getting credit for all his hard work because of Aladdin.” He explained. Hermione closed her eyes and leaned against his shoulder.

“I don’t think you understand this movie-”

“Aladdin is a bitch,” Ron said dutifully and sat down next to him, “I’m sorry about your mom.” He added quietly. “You know, if you ever asked… my mother would fight her for you.” He said. “I figured Andromeda had first dibs, but listen. Hey. Draco. My mom will fight her for you.” He said and Draco gave a snort. “My mom is already going to fight me for you.”

“What? Why?”

“She wrote and asked how you were doing and I said we haven’t been talking. I honestly thought she was going to send me another howler.” Ron snorted and threw an arm around his shoulder, “I’m sorry, mate.” He said.

“Well, I did lie to you-”

“Yeah, but you wouldn’t have if it wasn’t important.” He said, “I think we all knew that, but… it’s scary to find out you’ve been doing this crap by yourself.” He said and then frowned, "If... if you really want to do this Death Eater thing... I mean, pretty sure nobody wants you to, but if you're really that set on it..." He sighed, running a hand through his hair, "I guess we'll help out where we can." He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. Draco smiled a little and nodded. "As long as I get to deck your dad in the face when all is said and done." He added.

"... I'm not sure how I feel about that," Draco admitted and Ron rolled his eyes, "Tell you what. I'll let you deck Zacharias Smith for me. Neville already got a hit in, but you are welcome to throw another." He told them. At _that_ Ron seemed positively thrilled.

"Wait - _Neville?_ No bloody way! What did Smith do to warrant that?" He asked and then shook his head, "Later. Hey, when do we get to see your animagus form?” He asked. Draco grimaced. “Sirius said it was something fluffy. Please, _please_ tell me it’s something cute like a poodle.”

“No.”

“A bunny? No, a ferret! Maybe a panda-”

“I’m not a bloody _panda-”_

“It’s an arctic fox,” Hermione said and Draco turned to her, “What? I’ve been keeping an eye out,” she told him and then looked at Ron. “He’s really fluffy.” 

....Draco regretted making up with them.

* * *

As it turned out, Draco didn’t get to meet with Dumbledore since he decided to fuck off. He hadn’t been involved with the DA much since Christmas so he wasn’t there when Umbridge stormed the place. He had heard it was Edgecombe who had sold them out and was sporting a wonderful new look because of it. 

This was good and bad news for a few reasons.

Now that Dumbledore was gone, Umbridge ruled the school. In turn, it gave Draco a lot more power as well. 

On the other hand, Umbridge was downright psychopathic. Draco had hoped cluing McGonagall in about the black quills would have ridden the school of them altogether, but now that Dumbledore was gone… well, he wasn't sure there was much she could do.

Not that she didn’t try.

“Hey, Toodles.” He greeted her and then raised his hands when she turned to him. “Sorry! Sorry, I couldn’t resist.” He said quickly. McGonagall remained unimpressed. Silently, she reached out and grabbed his wrist, looking down at the still healing scars from the blood quill before fixing him with a fierce look.

“You need to reconsider the path you’re going down.”

People really needed to have more faith in him. This was getting old very fast. 

“I’m doing what I can,” he said, running his hand through his hair, "Did I at least help you find the other quills?" He asked. McGonagall sighed before opened a drawer to show him a good dozen of blood quills are snapped in half. Draco smiled. "Has she even realized they're missing?" Draco asked. McGonagall's lips thinned, but he was pretty sure she was fighting a smile.

"Yes. She's ordered more as well, but I believe Toodles is more than up to the task of stealing them before another student touches one."

Draco grinned at her.

“Why did you - oh,” he said, smile disappearing when McGonagall held up a dark red quill. “Did... Dumbledore give you one too?” He asked slowly. She nodded. 

“Before the minister came, he thought it prudent to give me his spare. He seems to be under the impression I will entertain your side quests as he has,” she told him before sitting the quill down. Then sighed. “Severus has stopped Potter’s occlumency lessons.” She finally said. Draco’s eyes snapped up.

“ _What?”_

“You are close with both of them - and I _know_ you are not on best terms with Potter.” She added when Draco opened his mouth, “So I expect you to mend things. Then I expect you to find a way to _resume_ those occlumency lessons. Then, I expect you to get your act together because I know your grades are slipping and you have OWLs coming up.” She said. Draco grimaced.

“That hardly seems-”

“I care very little what you think things seem, Mr. Malfoy. Those are your tasks. I won’t be giving you anymore until you complete them.” She said firmly. Draco clenched his teeth. Fine. _Fine_. If she wanted to put him back on training wheels then so be it. 

“Yes, professor.” He told her. She gave a short nod and placed the quill back on her desk.

“If I need you, I’ll be in touch.” 

...and because Draco was a little annoyed with her and also feeling that Gryffindor stupidity course through him he decided to give a sarcastic smile in return.

“See you, Toodles.” He said and then left before she could yell at him. 

If he considered his week to be bad at that point, then he needed to really lower his standards on what a good week looked like because it just got worse. In all honesty, it was a bit of his own fault. He had been suspicious when an owl swooped by, dropping a package in front of him during lunch. Neville had even frowned at it.

“...who’s it from?” He asked, leaning forward to check the tag. Draco tilted his head.

“My father.” He said slowly. It wasn’t his father’s handwriting though… even if it was familiar. Probably one of the servants sent it over then. He exchanged wary looks at Neville. He hadn't expected any contact from his family after that meeting with his mother. He tugged at the string. 

You know, back when he was younger he would have just given the box to someone else to open. Probably Neville. Then he could laugh when someone else got punched in the bloody face with whatever the Hell was in that thing and maybe make fun of them. 

But _no_ , he had to let those Gryffindors rub their foolish mediocrity on him so _he_ was the one with a black eye as Neville yanked the box away and threw it to the ground. Surprisingly, Dean Thomas flicked his wand to rid them of the thing as Draco cursed loudly, holding his eye as a dizzying amount of pain shot through him. A note fluttered in front of him. 

_Thinking of you ~Z.S._

That stupid son of a bitch. Draco turned to find Zacharias, but the coward already fled the Great Hall. A few people were whispering around him as Umbridge rose from her seat. He quickly waved her away as Neville helped him away from the table and out of the Great Hall.

“Maybe you should go to the hospital wing.” He said and then paused when he saw someone else walking down the corridor. Oh, come _on_.

“No, I’m okay,” he said and gave a nod towards Harry moving towards them. “I’m going back to the common room.” He added. Hermione and Ron were nowhere to be seen. If he was going to deal with Harry - or even try and fix whatever occlumency mess he had gotten himself into - it was going to be at least ten minutes after he got decked by a fake package. Neville grimaced.

“I have to get to class,” he said and looked at where Harry was getting closer. “Are you sure you’re okay?” He asked. Draco gave him a weak smile before nodding his head. “If you say so.” He sighed and picked up his bag. “I’ll punch Smith again for you.” He added. 

Draco couldn’t help, but grin at that. He didn’t have much time though with Harry gaining on them with concerning speed.

“Draco, please-”

“I could not be any less interested in speaking to you right now.” Draco said as he fixed the strap of his bag and kept marching away. He didn’t think Harry was coming from the Great Hall so he made sure to keep the left side of his face shielded to avoid that conversation as well. Harry groaned. “Go away, Scarhead.” He said and turned a sharp corner in hopes of losing him.

“You can’t be mad forever.”

“That statement alone proves how little you know me," He snapped back and when Harry didn’t respond, glanced back. “Go away.” He warned. Harry, predictably, did not leave. Draco took a long, very patient breath. “ _You_ are the one mad at _me_.” He reminded him.

“Well, yeah… but then… you know, with what you overhead…” He began awkwardly. “I’m just worried is all,” Harry said. The tone was probably meant to be placating, but Draco knew him well enough to detect the heat underneath. He had been so angry lately. It was making him angry too. At least, at this moment, he had the right to be angry. “We all know how you feel about your family. You would do anything to get in their good graces.” 

_Desperate_ , a voice whispered in the back of his head.

A sharp jab of pain was sent through his chest. Don’t. Don’t respond. Don’t. 

“I just don’t get _why-_ ”

“Why what?” Draco asked, turning another corner

“Why do you care about them?” Harry asked, clearly frustrated, “After everything they put you through?” He asked and Draco could feel him gesture wildly behind his back, “Draco, they didn’t accept you for being a Gryffindor. Do you think they’ll come around now that you have a muggleborn, blood traitor, and Dark Lord survivor best friends? After you helped get rid of Voldemort several times? I… they won’t accept you! Why are you still trying to help them?” He asked, "You're just going to get hurt-"

“What a Slytherin thing of you to say.” He said coolly. Harry bristled. “Poppy seed.” He added to the Fat Lady as they approached the common room. “Look, I’m sorry you got left out and I didn’t-”

“I’m not-” Harry interrupted and took a long breath as Draco moved to one of the empty seats and threw himself down. There was a long pause. “Can we… just put this on hold for a little bit?” He asked, as if he _wasn’t_ the cause of all of this. “Please?”

“Why?” He asked bitterly, “Need someone to mope in despair at your romantic failures?” Draco asked. Wordlessly, Harry plopped down next to him. “...oh my God, you _do_ ,” Draco snorted and shook his head. “Everyone was saying they saw you and Cho at Madam Puddifoot’s. What happened?” He asked, genuinely curious.

Not that he cared or was any less mad at Harry right now. Just… yeah. Curious.

“She… kept crying over Cedric and comparing us. Then she got mad about Hermione.” He said, wrinkling his nose. “I think she only liked me because I was the one who saw Cedric die.” He said, looking a little put out by the thought. Draco felt a sharp stab in his chest at that. He was also pretty it might be more complicated than that, but that probably wasn’t the best thing to say. Hermione would be pleased with how far he had come with tact. 

“I’m sorry,” he said instead, “I’m sure she didn’t know she was doing that.” He said slowly. Harry merely shrugged. “It definitely wasn't you. Just... circumstance," He shrugged, "Besides, there’s no shortage of girls that would go out with you?” He tried. Harry turned to look at him, “What? It’s true. You’re very lucky I’m not straight else you wouldn’t have a chance with any of them.” He said. That at least got a small smile before Harry lightly shoved him.

“Heard Neville punched Smith in the nose.”

Draco closed his eyes. 

“Yes.”

“Why?” Harry laughed and Draco hesitated. Did Neville not tell anyone what happened? Or was that a rhetorical question? No, he looked as if he was genuinely curious. Immediately the amusement went away after a beat of silence. “Wait. Why?” He asked again, frowning. 

“I turned the Hufflepuff quidditch team over to Umbridge-” He said, realizing a bit too late that he had waited too long to brush the incident off. Even Harry I-Didn’t-Notice-I-Was-A-Wizard Potter could see through it. Harry looked at him for a second before grabbing his shoulder to look at him directly. “Please don’t-”

“What is that?” He asked, voice rising when he finally got a good look at Draco’s eye. “He did that? Are you kidding me?” He asked and Draco groaned. 

“It literally just happened, okay? There was an argument the other day. It escalated. This was he response to Neville hitting him.” He said, hoping that would be the end of it. 

It was not. Harry stood up. Draco sighed and tugged him back down. 

“Leave it _alone_ ,” He tried. Harry scowled, fists clenching at his side. Yeah… that was probably why he didn’t know actually. Even Neville was aware Harry’s temper had been worse than usual. Smith might get more than a black eye if he encountered an unrestrained Harry Potter. “Come on, Harry. Please.” He said again. “Why do you even care? You’re mad at me-”

“That doesn’t mean people can go around hurting you!” Harry said hotly, “I should have let Ron stun him-”

“Where are they?” Draco cut him off. “Hermione and Ron, I mean.” They had been suspiciously absent of late. Harry was almost always alone now. The anger in his face immediately withered at the name and he sat back down.

“...they aren’t talking to me.” He said, “Not until we make up. Hermione is getting really annoyed with me for drawing this out.” He admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. “She said it was best to give you space for now in case you were doing…” He trailed off, wrinkling his nose, “You know, Death Eater stuff.” He said distastefully. Draco sighed. “She’s still planning on giving you a massive apology, you know. I think she bought you ten different things the last time we went to Hogsmeade.”

“She didn’t do anything wrong. I was the one who lied.” Draco grumbled. Harry went silent.

“I’m sorry,” he finally said, “Hermione was right. You’re right. I got upset that you were told things that I wasn’t. Then, I found out you’ve been lying to me all term and… I mean, I really don’t like it, Draco.” He said with a shake of his head. “The Death Eater thing. I don’t want you to do it.” He added. 

“I know. I’m sorry,” Draco said and rubbed the side of his arm, "And... I'm really sorry about everything I said to you." He told him cautiously, "And - look, I know you don't understand why I want to help my parents so badly. I don't understand it completely, either. They're not... we don't agree with how things should work anymore. They let me down even if they had... good intentions," he sighed, thinking of his mother, "You're my family. I'm so lucky to have all of you. It _should_ be enough for me. It is." He corrected himself, "But..." He trailed.

Harry looked at him.

"You love them."

"Yeah," Draco said, so utterly defeated by that truth that his shoulders slumped slightly, "I do. I've seen different sides to them. Even now, I know they're still trying to protect me in their own way. I just can't stand the thought of letting them get hurt." He said and then looked at his hands, "It's okay if you think less me because of it-"

"No," Harry interrupted, "I... you can't help your feelings." He said and Draco gave a weak smile in return, “I guess... Well, I would just leave my aunt and uncle to die. Even though I have no friendly feelings for them," he said with a grimace, "So, I suppose I get a bit of it. It's just - the idea of you being with them… as one of them,” he said slowly. “It scares me. Not because I think you would ever betray us or aren’t talented enough to do it. I…” he bit his lip, “I honestly don’t know how I would be able to do anything without you.” He said and finally turned to look at him. “Even with us fighting, I’m a mess.” He muttered and kicked the ground. “I don’t like thinking about you leaving us.” 

“I wouldn’t leave you,” Draco said before the words were even fully processed. Harry glanced over at him. “I mean, I might not be able to be around all the time, but… you know I would never leave you, right? You know that. After everything… you… you just have to know that.” He said slowly. Harry was staring at him, eyes fixed on him with an intensity that Draco wasn’t really sure how to receive. It made his heart do something in his chest that might have been a health concern in any other circumstance. “Besides,” Draco coughed, “I would look brilliant as a Death Eater. Have you seen the tattoos?” He asked. 

Harry’s gaze broke and Draco felt as though he could breathe again.

“I have two more years to change your mind,” he decided. Draco scoffed in return, "I'll work with Harriet to make it happen." He added. Harriet appeared from Draco's sleeve to hiss at him before retreating, "Are you _ever_ going to like me?" Harry asked her. Draco ignored them both in favor of biting his lip.

"Hey, I don't... you..." He began and struggled to find the right words. Harry tilted his head. "I wish I could take back the stuff I said before," he finally got out and Harry seemed to wilt at that, "Nothing you've done is the reason people have gotten hurt. You've always done your best. I know it hasn't always felt like enough, but it really is." He said. Harry shrugged, not looking at him. "And I should have included you from the beginning. Just because I knew you would disagree with me doesn't mean I shouldn't have included you. I mean, you're like... thirty percent of the reason I don't suck as a person now. Clearly, your opinion should be valued."

"Only thirty?" Harry asked, voice somewhat light. Draco shrugged.

"I mean, we have to credit Hermione with a good fifty to sixty at least. Ron might be ten to twenty. We're not going to try to include Andromeda because the math would get too complicated." He said and Harry gave a low chuckle. Draco tugged on his arm. Harry frowned, looking at him for a moment with a questioning look, "Just... hug me and then maybe we can move past this?" He asked.

"Oh, you're asking _me_ for physical affection?"

"You know what?" Draco began, but Harry had already pretty much tackled him. The smell of spring was overwhelming his senses again, but he didn't mind it. In a weird way, it almost felt like he could breathe better with it. He squeezed back - even when Harry went to let ago, he only held on to try and somehow convey how much he regretted everything that happened. Harry paused and based on how tightly he squeezed back, he felt similarly.

Draco let go.

"I'm sorry." He said once last time. Harry absently traced the bruise forming around Draco's eye. He should really use a healing spell to get rid of that.

“Don't worry about it. For now, we can focus on killing Smith-”

“Or your occlumency lessons,” Draco suggested, ignoring Harry summoning some ice to press up against his eye. It was a muggle technique that Draco would normally be scoffing at, but he had other things to worry about. “Because I heard you got kicked out of those-”

“Or Smith,” Harry reiterated, “I still can’t believe Neville punched him.” He said and then turned to Draco. “Wait… you two aren’t…?” He said slowly and Draco laughed. 

“No. Though I did think I was in love with him earlier.” He mused and Harry blinked at him a few times. “It’s weird. Like… I regard him very fondly, but also the idea of kissing him seems weird. Kind of like Hermione, actually.” He frowned, “I’m pretty sure if kissing wasn’t involved in the relationship I would marry him.” He decided. Harry stared at him.

“So… a friend?” He asked flatly. Draco considered.

“Maybe, but a bit more than that. Most of my friends annoy me. He doesn’t.” Draco explained. Harry made a face at him, “Like, he’s so _nice_. I’ve never met someone so nice-”

“Yes, you bloody have, shut _up,_ ” Harry snapped at him, clearly aggravated. “You are a nightmare to deal with sometimes, you know that? We are all literally so nice to you-”

“You see, Neville wouldn’t talk to me this way-”

“Oh my God," Harry said and looked up, "I swear, nobody else in the world can piss me off like you can," he muttered and Draco laughed. The sound seemed to immediately zap the ire out of him. "I missed you." He added on quietly. Draco smiled - warmth was rising in his chest. It was... unfamiliar. Well, that wasn't completely true. It was like... a sort of feeling he had been expecting, but hadn't quite felt yet. Not fully.

"I missed you too," he added and then bit his lip again, "How... are you doing?" He asked slowly, eyes trying to gauge how much of a mess he actually was. Draco had heard him having a few more nightmares - though none had been as intense as the previous one. "I mean, with the Voldemort stuff and Umbridge and - all of that." He added, grabbing Harry's hand to trace the outline of Umbridge's words on the back. Harry's lips pursed. For a moment he didn't say anything. He just watched Draco's hand move across the words.

"I feel dirty," he said finally and Draco glanced up at him, "Like there's... something inside me that..." He shook his head, "It makes me like him. Angry and cruel and..." He swallowed and used his other hand to pinch the bridge of his nose, "Do you think I'm a good person?" He asked and Draco raised an eyebrow, "Answer honestly. Please." He added.

Draco's for response was to say that... yeah, obviously. He got the feeling that wouldn't be convincing though.

"Do you think I'm a good person?" He asked instead. Harry scoffed, "No, seriously. After everything. After how I grew up, after all the stuff I used to say, the stuff I say now, me trying to help my parents, lying to you, lying to Ron and Hermione - do you think I'm still a good person?" He asked. Harry frowned. There was a quiet moment where Harry mulled it over.

"I... think so, yeah. You try to be, which is more than some can say." He added under his breath and Draco smiled.

"Then I think it's safe to say you have nothing to worry about."

Harry looked at him and then slowly nodded.

Draco thought they might just leave it at that. You know, just sit silently for a couple minutes and let all the awfulness from the past weeks wash away. He was completely content just sitting here, pretending to wipe away the scars on Harry's hand and let the fire crackle and burn away any residual pain.

Nope. Not with Harry.

"Ron and Hermione said you were really fluffy," he said a second later - leaving Draco reeling for a second as to what he was even talking about. "Here are my terms for forgiveness-"

"Wha-?"

"Either you help me finish that potions essay or I get to pet you. Otherwise we will forever remain at odds." Harry told him stoically. Draco opened his mouth to gape for a moment. Partly at the audacity, but also at how he was able to keep a straight face.

"That essay was due weeks ago."

"Then it appears there is only one option for you. Go on. Transform. Let's see it."

"No! I don't change at your command!" Draco said and Harry narrowed his eyes, "Come _on,_ I'm not a pet! Why does everyone keep doing this?" He asked. Harry's face remained set in a warning scowl. Draco waited for him to say he was joking. Nothing. "Fucking Hell - fine, let's go to the bloody forest then." He muttered and Harry punched the air in victory.

Whatever. It was kind of worth it.

* * *

Draco was a little stressed. Just a smidge. 

On the bright side, he had successfully smuggled Pansy and Blaise out of Hogwarts and into the safehouse that him and Andromeda made. Additionally, a few other Slytherins were coming to him saying they didn’t want to fight so after a few more unbreakable vows he shipped them off too. A few other Slytherins also came asking to join the ‘light side’ of the war efforts. Draco rolled his eyes at the name, but sent them towards Zoe and Tristam who helped them get to know DA members better.

Yeah, Draco thought the DA was disbanded too. Apparently not. 

Which led to the non-bright side of his current situation. Harry had not mastered occlumency in time and thought Sirius was currently being tortured. 

Now, Draco didn’t like the idea of his cousin being tortured, but he also wasn’t sure that he _was_. He and Hermione had tried valiantly to reason with Harry - enough to get him to try firecalling him. Sirius hadn’t answered though. 

“Kreacher said-

“I don’t think Kreacher is a reliable source, Harry,” he said and ran his hand through his hair, “We need another plan in case this is a trap.” He tried and turned to Hermione who was nodding. 

“We checked! He wasn’t there!” Harry shot back, almost hysterically, “He’s the only family I have left-” he started and that’s when Draco knew inevitably that they were going to the Department of Mysteries. In reality, if Harry had said 'please’ then Draco might have caved, but throwing out that line along with the note of fear wavering underneath the declaration?

Draco didn’t used to _be_ this empathetic. Damn character development. 

Luckily, Draco was smart. So when the DA assembled to go out on their newest ministry mission after taking care of Umbridge (yeah, Draco wasn’t going to get into the specifics of _that)_ he brought out his red quill and wrote a quick explanation down with a silent prayer that Dumbledore or McGonagall would come to their aid soon. Well, maybe not McGonagall seeing as she might be unconscious for a while. Four stunning spells to the chest was sure to put one down for a while. All for defending Hagrid. 

She was going to _kill_ him when this was over… Her and Andromeda both. 

“Hey,” Harry said suddenly as they descended from the sky, “You never told me why you could see thestrals.” He said. Draco grimaced. He was absently patting the side of his own thestral’s neck before remembering Harry, Neville, and Luna were the only other ones who could see them.

“We should probably focus on this,” he said and Harry looked at him for a moment before nodding before refocusing back on the streets of London. He twisted his hands together, eyes roaming with a bit of uneasiness as they tried to find the right phone booth.

"It... It was the Death Eater I mentioned found us this summer," Draco said and Harry turned back towards him, "He was looking for Ted, I think. Wanted to bring him the muggleborn that ruined the Black family," he snorted and shook his head, "I... it all happened pretty fast, but one second he was there and the next... Andromeda had him on the ground." He said slowly. Harry blinked.

" _Andromeda_ killed him?"

"She was raised alongside Bellatrix," Draco pointed out. In truth, it had been a bit jarring for him at first too. Andromeda may look like Bellatrix, but there was a softness to her that overshadowed any dangerous undertones. He swallowed. "She warned him not to come any closer and then the second he stepped forward," Draco snapped, "He was dead. She didn't even use her wand since it was in the other room. Just a knife. I don't think I have ever seen someone move so fast."

Harry frowned.

"I'm sorry, that sounds... terrifying." He decided. Draco shrugged. Admittedly, he hadn't completely gotten over it. There was something eerie about seeing the body of another person on the ground. Seeing their life zapped out of them in seconds. Even if Draco knew something awful would have happened if Andromeda didn't step in... it was a lot. It also made him question for the first time how he was going to protect his friends and family. After all, he couldn't rely on Andromeda forever, "I was wondering if it had been Cassi," Harry admitted. Ah. Draco shrugged.

"I mean, I was there for that too, I think," he said slowly and shook his head, "It was different though. I was too young to understand what was happening. I barely remember it now, so I'm not sure that counts. I mean, you weren't able to see thestrals even though you technically saw your parents die." He reasoned. Harry hummed at that as they walked quickly down towards the phone booth. Luckily, Harry didn’t continue the line of questioning when they rejoined the others.

"Hey," Draco said before they went to walked inside, "Are you sure you should be going with us?" He asked Zoe, looking pointedly at her non-golden appearance. Her eyes narrowed, "This is a rescue mission. If there's a bunch of wayward curses you _know_ they are more likely to hit you-"

"I know it's risky," Zoe interrupted and put a hand on his arm, "But when the war comes I'm not going to be lucky all the time. I need to find a way to survive with the bad luck too. What have I been doing all the DA training for if not to rescue a convicted murderer who is apparently innocent and also Harry's random godfather?" She asked, gesturing towards where Harry turned to the others and gave a slight shrug.

"I know, just... _please_ be careful." Draco told her. Theo's name was whispering in the back of his head. He had already hurt one person in that friend group. He couldn't let anything happen to Zoe too. She gave him a bright smile before skipping towards the phone booth. Great. Yeah, this was going to go wonderfully. He could feel it in his bones. Taking a long breath, he followed the others inside.

All of which led Draco to this very disturbing moment. A room full of glowing, glass spheres. One of which marked with Harry’s name… and a room full of Death Eaters. 

Hurray. By the way, Sirius was _not_ present. 

So… yeah. Not going great. A bunch of teenagers were going to face down some adult, highly trained Death Eaters. There was something about the idea that didn’t seem as outlandish as it was. Perhaps it was the fact Draco had fought Voldemort and a snake respectively at much younger ages.

“Oh, I know _you…”_

“I would hope so,” Draco said, raising his wand, “It hasn’t been that long, Bella.” He told her. The group had gotten separated - a whirl of spells and lights sending objects flying and glass shattering. “I was hoping to run into you, actually.” He said, eyes flicking around. Ginny’s eyes fell on them before she raised her wand. Bellatrix flicked her own without so much of a glance at her, sending Ginny flying back.

“Is that so?” Bellatrix asked, licking her lips, “We’ve heard rumors, Draco…” She purred, lips twitching as if unsure if she should be smiling or scowling. “Mommy and daddy say you want to come back home.” She grinned. Draco pulled back his sleeve.

“DRACO!” Someone shouted, but he pushed the voice away. They were fine. They were _fine_. Bellatrix had always been Voldemort’s most dangerous Death Eater. If he could keep her preoccupied then the others were safer… He couldn’t afford to be distracted.

“Oh, look at you,” Bellatrix said, eyes fixating on the scars on Draco’s hand, “Giving yourself little reminders.”

“I don’t care what a _hat_ says,” he told her, keeping his voice even. Something shattered next to them. “I want to serve the Dark Lord. If my parents won’t help me… then you can.” He said and gave a wild gesture, “They forced me to live among blood traitors and mudbloods for years. Surely you won’t condemn me to such a fate.” He said. Bellatrix stopped moving altogether. For a moment, he wondered if someone had hit her with a body binding spell. 

“You chose your friends, little lion.”

“No,” Draco snapped back, “I chose my allies. Ever since I was old enough to visit you in Azkaban you’ve told me that the Dark Lord would rise. I’ve been preparing for it.” He said. The ground trembled - letting items fall off the shelves with a crash. A veil swooped by, sucking some of them inside. Bellatrix acknowledged none of the chaos. He could feel her trying to pry inside of his mind. He let her in. Not all the way, but enough for her to feel his anger. Granted, it wasn’t towards his friends like he was leading her to believe… but it would work. 

From somewhere behind him, Tristam was backing away from some Death Eaters. Draco inwardly tensed before hearing a bloodcurdling scream that sent Rodolphus flying back. Oh. Right. Zoe had said his grandmother was a banshee, hadn’t she? Nifty. He turned back to Bellatrix, lowering his wand, and slipping it back into his pocket to instead pull out one of Bellatrix’s knives. Her eyes lit up.

“Now where did you get that?” She asked, eyes glittering. Draco looked around them warily. He could see more figures joining the fight - though he couldn’t say for sure whose side they were on. Maybe Dumbledore got his message.

“Took it from Andromeda,” he lied easily, “I didn’t think they should remain with a blood traitor.” He said. Bellatrix licked her lips.

“You don’t know how to use those.”

Draco smiled. He did very much know how to use them. To prove it, he threw one at her - letting magic steer it so it grazed her arm. With a flick of his wrist it came flying back. Bellatrix didn’t flinch. She touched her arm and peered at the cut. The blood on her fingertips turned black.

“You’ve been learning dark magic.”

The taunt from her voice was gone. In fact, if he didn’t know any better he might say there was a hint of respect in there. Draco tilted his head at her. She took a step towards him and reached out so that the tip of her wand rested underneath his chin. From somewhere else he could hear Zoe's voice yelping as if struck by something. He forced himself not to react.

“I think we can find out fairly quickly where your loyalties truly lie.” Bellatrix whispered and lowered her wand. Draco’s stomach sank. He wasn’t sure he liked where this was going. “Grab my arm.”

“If I just disappear they’ll be suspicious!” He shot back. He was sure the Order was here now. He could see Nymphadora’s bubblegum pink hair sticking out next to what looked to be Sirius. Bellatrix gave a long laugh. 

“Oh, then let’s give them a show, shall we?” She asked and held out her hand. “Give me a knife.” She said. Draco pursed his lips. He didn’t like the idea very much… if at all. “He’ll be here soon enough,” she warned and gestured him over with a single finger. 

“Where’s Draco?!” He heard someone (it sounded like Neville) call out. Bellatrix cleared her throat.

“Quick, dear. Before it’s too late.” 

Draco gave her the knife. He didn’t have much time to consider the consequences until she spun him around, putting the blade at the base of his throat. He had no idea if this was a good or bad thing.

“Struggle,” she told him as she walked forward, her other hand pressing her wand firmly against his back. “Make it look real.” She added and pressed the knife a bit more into the skin. “If you aren’t a good actor… you won’t make a very good Death Eater.” She said. 

“We’ll see,” he snapped back and jerked away from her. The knife kept him firmly in place, but he kept struggling anyways. “Dora!” He called out, keeping his voice high with the adrenaline currently coursing through him.

Luna saw him first. Her eyes widened - wand lowering slightly. Remus yanked her away from a wayward course before also turning to see Bellatrix and Draco. He shoved Luna behind him, but Draco could see the panic in his gaze. 

“Draco-” Nymphadora said, holding up her hands. Bellatrix laughed.

“Lucius!” She sang, “I have a gift for you!” 

Draco struggled some more. He could feel the knife pressing in deeper, letting beads of blood roll down his neck. He gave a small whimper before trying to jerk away again.

“Dora. Dora, help-” He tried and Nymphadora swallowed. 

“Bellatrix,” she said slowly. “Just… wait a second.” She said, but Draco could see her eyes dancing around - trying to find a way to buy some time. 

“I do love family reunions,” Bellatrix purred. “Hello, cousin.” She added to Sirius. Harry was beside him, eyes wide. Bellatrix laughed when he went for his wand. “Oh, no, no, Potter. I wouldn’t if I were you. We wouldn’t want to hurt Draco now, would we?” She asked and then pressed her lips against his ear. “Sorry, love, but I don’t think they’re buying it yet.”

Draco didn’t have time to fully digest what she meant by that until the pain came a second later. 

This time, the cry of pain he gave was completely genuine as she lowered the knife from his neck to plunge into his shoulder instead. He gasped when she yanked it out, moving to pull away, but Bellatrix had already brought it back out to bring to his neck once more.

Despite the pain, Draco tried to look around for the others. Neville was staring at Bellatrix a few feet away. His nose was bloodied, but other than that he seemed relatively unharmed. Ginny was on the ground, hands holding her ankle with Kingsley Shacklebolt in front of her. Tristam and Zoe - oh, thank _Merlin_ \- were bleeding and nursing wounds, but alive. He couldn’t see… there. Hermione and Ron. They were together - both looked hurt. Hermione was on the ground completely still while Ron appeared to be… laughing? 

“What do you want with him?” Harry challenged, voice shaking slightly. “Let him go. You didn't come here for him, you _coward-”_

“Oh, that doesn’t sound very nice… Does it, Draco?” She asked, propping her chin on his shoulder. She let the knife roam playfully up his face. “Maybe we should teach him a lesson in manners…”

“ _Bellatrix.”_

It was then that Draco noticed his father. A few of the other Death Eaters were rising. He could see Rebastan unconscious on the ground along with a few others he couldn’t quite identify though. However, none of the others seemed to be… moving. As if, they too, were stunned by Draco’s capture. 

That didn’t make sense though. They should be taking this opportunity to strike the Order down. Why weren’t they attacking?

“Bellatrix,” his father spoke again and his eyes moved towards the other end of the room. Ah. Okay, that explained it. “Let him go. Now. We have another visitor.” 

Dumbledore. How bloody nice of him to join them. Took his bloody time, didn't he?

Bellatrix’s grip on Draco only tightened.

“Hello everyone,” Dumbledore greeted calmly. Draco had to fight not to roll his eyes. “I see you have captured one of my students, Bellatrix.” He added and pulled out his hand, “If you would kindly release him that would be much appreciated.”

“Oh,” Bella frowned, “Well when you put it light that…” She said and tapped the knife against Draco’s neck. “Hm…”

“Let him _go!”_ Neville hissed. Remus reached out to hold him back. Bellatrix’s eyes lit up.

“Oh, you look very familiar…” She said, “Longbottom? I do believe I had the pleasure of meeting your parents. You look very much like your father.” She said and licked her lips. Neville’s face went dark - expression shining with hatred. 

It was around this moment that Draco realized how badly he was screwed. 

Bellatrix’s knives, according to Severus, often used dark magic to fulfill the wielder’s needs. If you wanted to cause someone a lot of pain then the cuts would burn. If you wanted to kill someone then the cuts would lace themselves with poison. If you wanted someone _unconscious -_

Well. Let’s just say that Draco was feeling very lightheaded all of a sudden.

“...Bella.” He murmured and blinked a few times. “I...you…” he grumbled and he felt her breath hot against his neck. 

“We’re almost done,” she said, “Promise. You’re doing very well, Draco.”

He didn’t really know what that meant. His brain was too tired… but… but… no. He had to stay awake. Bellatrix couldn’t fight if she kept Draco hostage… she was also probably the only one crazy enough to take Dumbledore on.

There was more shouting. Then, without warning, Bellatrix was gone and Draco was fully awake as he crashed into the floor. He gasped, a jolt of pain shooting through his wrists as he landed. He felt someone tugging on his shoulder to find Neville next to him.

“Move.” He said, yanking Draco away. “Come on.”

“What happened?” Draco asked and turned to - _Voldemort_ . His mind momentarily blanked at the sight of him. Harry had described him often enough. The translucent skin and gaunt, almost snakelike features. Bellatrix had apparently let go of him to aid him after he took the first shot at Dumbledore. “ _Shit -_ Neville. Go.” He said, shoving him away. 

“Are you insane?” Neville asked as he looked around, “Ron was hit with some… I don’t know what it was, but he’s giggling like crazy. Hermione’s unconscious, but she’s okay.” He added and Draco felt a flood of relief rush through him. 

“Where’s - ? There you are.” Draco said as Harry appeared, and it was then he noticed that Bellatrix was wailing. “What happened?”

“I told her I broke the prophecy,” Harry answered darkly, “Are you okay?” He asked, raising a hand to turn his face so he could see the cuts on his neck. Draco nodded with a brief murmur of reassurance. “Come on. We need to get them out of here.” Harry said evenly. He stood up, ignoring the lights behind them as statues came to life as a sort of shield around the Order members. Draco could see the other Death Eaters all tied together with some invisible rope. Well, those aside from Voldemort and Bellatrix.

“Okay,” Draco agreed… except he needed that knife back. The other two sat in his pockets, but Bellatrix still held onto the one he had given her, eyes wild as she alternated between shooting spells and slashing with it. Sirius was rushing over, wand out to disarm her. Harry’s eyes widened. 

“Sirius-” He said and then gasped, collapsing to the ground as he grabbed at his scar with a cry of pain. Draco grabbed his arm.

“Harry? What - ? _Harry!”_ He said sharply, fingers digging into his arm. “Block him out. We talked about this - _block him_.” He ordered as Harry gave a slight gasp of trembling pain. “Come on-” He tried and Neville suddenly moved, raising his own wand. 

“ _Stupefy!”_ He shouted, but with his broken nose the pronunciation was slightly off for anything to happen. A few of the adults who had been helping spread out trying to either help Dumbledore or gather the injured all suddenly sent an onslaught of spells upon realizing Bellatrix had left her master’s side.

“If my master can’t have the prophecy…” she began and pointed her wand at Harry. Remus and Shacklebolt both attacked at once. Neville grabbed a still convulsing Harry to pull to the side. Draco looked back. Bellatrix still had the knife. When she went towards Harry once more, Sirius struck again - his curse didn't quite hit, but grazed her side. Bellatrix spun back around with a snarl.

"You're getting in the way, _cousin,_ " She hissed and raised her wand. Draco felt his chest tighten. No. He shoved his wand in his robes and jumped up.

"Draco-" Neville said, grabbing his arm. Draco tore himself away.

“Take care of him,” he said with a nod towards Harry and moved away, “All of them. Tell Andromeda that I’ll see her as soon as I can, okay?” He asked, somehow knowing... knowing... he shook his head free of it. Bellatrix and Sirius were still dueling. He debated about transforming into his animagus form, but a voice in the back of his head cautioned him against. He was quick enough without it. Already, he was catching up to where Bellatrix was fending off Shacklebolt and Remus in order to keep up her current attack towards Sirius. At the last moment he leapt, sending both him and Bellatrix tumbling to the ground.

He had made fun of Harry just jumping on Quirrell in their first year. Now, look at him. Just bloody jumping on top of Death Eaters. It was a damn shame. He supposed that while Bellatrix could probably block any spell he sent her way, she couldn't block a fifteen-year-old launching himself at her. Well, she could if she was expecting it maybe. Draco was pretty sure nobody was expecting this though. Least of all Draco himself.

The knife clattered to the floor as they hit the ground and Draco rolled over to grab it. Shacklebolt gave a cry of victory. Bellatrix growled and reached across the ground to grab it again. Draco beat her too it thought and yanked it away from her, sliding across the ground towards Sirius.

"TAKE IT!" He yelled. Sirius was of Black blood. He could use it. He could use it to protect the others. Bellatrix let out a low growl and hit the ground.

"You're playing your part a little too well," she hissed at him and Draco felt his heart rate pick up, "Are you sure you know where your loyalties lie, Draco?" She asked and then jerked up before he could respond, pointing her wand directly in front of them, " _Avada Kedavra!"_ She screamed and somebody yelled out Sirius' name. Draco launched himself at Bellatrix again, tackling her to the ground so that her wand was loosened from her hand. He kicked hard and brought out his own wand. 

Sirius. No, no, no - he looked up to try and find him. Where was he? _Where was he?_

Just as he was about to fully devolve into pure panic, he caught sight of Remus jerking forward by that floating veil to grab a stumbling figure away. Sirius. Draco held his breath as he tried to piece together what had happened. If Sirius had fallen backwards then he was hit, right? No, no - he was moving. How was he-? Draco blinked a few times before noticing Sirius staring in blank shock at the knife in his hand. Holy shit.

The knife blocked the spell.

Part of him wanted to laugh wildly. Of course, _of course,_ it did. It was dark magic. There were no counter curses for unforgivables. Not for the light side at least. Dark magic though... Draco almost collapsed with relief. Slowly, he moved to get up only to hear Zoe scream his name.

"DRACO, MOVE!"

“ _Draco!”_ Harry's voice suddenly cut in, rendering the rest of the world irrelevant. He turned to see Harry had recovered from whatever had been in his head, eyes blown wide with horror, " _Draco, look out!"_ He screeched and, feeling his heart sink, Draco whipped around to see Voldemort was inches away, grabbing Bellatrix. They were escaping, he realized. They were _apparating.  
_

And Draco was within reach of his aunt. 

Harry was sprinting towards them. Draco jerked forward - trying to reach out towards him as he went to move away, but Bellatrix’s hand had already latched onto his ankle. He had just enough time to meet Harry’s eyes before feeling himself yanked away into nothing but darkness with his own voice echoing in his head.

_“You know I would never leave you, right? You know that. After everything… you… you just have to know that.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ....so....
> 
> Same time next week? Jk. I know I left you on a cliffhanger. See you on Sunday.
> 
> The wildest part of writing this fic is legit looking up when the Lion King came out to make sure it wasn’t released after the OOTP took place. The fact this series was set in the 90s is bewildering to me still. 
> 
> Thank you for reading <3 TONS of Drarry content is about to hit you so if you made it this far then the payoff is gonna be coming within the next few chapters, worry not. I HAVE A PLAN! I PROMISE! 
> 
> Also, how would you feel if the next chapter is around 20,000 words? I know these tend to range b/w 10,000-15,000 per a chapter but there's so much I want to fit into the next one. I don't usually get complaints about chapters being longer, but I did want to say I can break it up if that's too much for one sitting. Google says a chapter is usually about around 2,000-5,000 words in length, but Google also says an epic is 100,000 words and we left that in the dust at freaking chapter 9 so like. I don't even know anymore. Just lmk if I need to switch some scenes around, but if you guys like the longer chapter I can keep it and say it's a present for leaving you like this lol. Sorry about that btw.


	13. Year Six (In Which There Are Nightmares, Clubs, and Crushes)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WE MADE IT!!! Alright, while there is some angst I pinky promise the pain is super minimal here. The angst is just recovering from last year mainly so.... we're all in the clear. I don't think there are any warnings I'm gonna need for this year other than referenced torture and some character death (nobody that you're attached to, worry not). Oh! And maybe some sexual implications later on, but nothing too graphic. Just the bullshit you would normally expect from teenagers lol. 
> 
>   
> Also! So, this is the 20,000 word chapter. It's hella long. If you want to split it up so you can take a break, eat snacks, etc... I would recommended stopping right after Draco meets Slughorn for the first time. That's a good halfway point.

“Deep breath. In… out…”

“-count backward from ten, alright?”

“Enchantment won’t hold for long-”

“Sixteen-years-old. How long-?”

“Can you hear me?”

Draco’s attention snapped forward. He had to replay the question in his mind a few times before giving a small nod of affirmation. The woman smiled warmly at him, setting her wand to the side before glancing over her shoulder at the door. There were murmurs outside. Whispers. A few shouts. Absently, Draco let his hand fall to a chain around his neck and squeezed at the golden watch that was hanging at the end of it. A warmth came over him, tricking from his fingers to his chest, reminding him to breathe. 

“What’s that?” He asked, gesturing to a potion bubbling on the table next to them. The healer followed his eyes before tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “I’m just curious,” he added. “I, um, want to become a healer.” He shrugged. 

“A numbing potion,” She said, handing it to him. “If we had to do anything really sudden or major we would give that to you first,” she explained and tilted her head, “But you seem to be okay.” She said. He shrugged. “I suppose some of it is the shock.” 

“Probably.” He agreed, “Am I going to have to talk to the aurors again?” He asked warily. He had spoken to six aurors already. Three healers. The minister even. All had come and gone with numerous questions, inquiries, and requests. A few had asked for memories only to be shut down by a furious Nymphadora who reminded them all that as an underaged wizard they weren’t allowed to perform any invasive magic without Andromeda’s permission.

“I don’t think your aunt and uncle are going to let them,” the healer told him and patted his knee, “They are all rather keen to see you.” She added. “I’m sure they’ll be wanting to hear how you escaped those Death Eaters too.” She said. “You’re going to be popular at school this year.”

It was probably meant as a sort of silver lining. A ‘hey, you were missing for three months, but everyone is going to think you’re brilliant so maybe it’s worth the trauma’. 

Eh. He honestly might enjoy the attention. 

“I was already popular.” He told her instead, “Can I go soon?”

“As soon as the release papers are signed,” the healer told him, clapping his knee. Draco nodded. Good. He looked around his small area of St. Mungo’s. He wasn’t sure how long he had been there. The last thing he remembered clearly was Bellatrix whispering to him as Donovan chanted a spell under his breath. Then he woke up in the middle of London.

“Hey,” Nymphadora said as she knocked on the doorframe, “Mom says we have to go now. Dad jinxed someone.” She explained. Draco blinked. He what? Ted was a pretty docile wizard. He wanted to ask more on that, but figured time was of the essence. He hopped off the counter as the healer frowned.

“Why-?” Draco began, but was cut off by being pulled into a hug. 

“I am so sorry,” Dora whispered and let go to look at him. “Everyone lost their minds over the summer,” she grimaced. Draco looked at the ground. Yeah. He worried that might be the case. “I knew you would be okay though,” she said and slung her arm over his shoulders to steer him out of the room. Ted and Andromeda were both in the waiting room, scowling at the receptionist. 

“ _Draco_ ,” Andromeda said, whipping around as soon as the door opened. She rushed over, shoving aside another patient (aw, they really _were_ related) to get to him. “Hi, sweetheart.” She said and pulled back to look him over. “Hi.” She murmured and grabbed either side of his face.

“Hi,” He said and grabbed her hands so they were cupping hers over his cheeks. “I’ve missed you.” He said. Then glanced around warily. “Did… Severus…?” He asked, unwilling to risk the rest. Did Severus tell them all that he was alive? He had hoped him appearing out of nowhere didn’t come as a shock. Andromeda nodded. Good. They knew enough then.

“Let’s walk,” Ted said quietly, putting an arm protectively around Andromeda as he gave a stern look at people staring. “The healers said you were okay,” he added to Draco cautiously, “Do you feel comfortable enough to leave?” He asked. Draco nodded. He wasn’t hurt. Not now, at least.

“Good. Let’s get him out of here before they try to drag him into more questioning,” Dora said lowly, “What did you tell them?” She asked as they exited the front door. Draco pursed his lips. 

“Bellatrix grabbed me and we all apparated,” he said evenly, repeating the words like script… which they were. When he had said them to the ministry it had been with more crying and wavering notes and shudders. Now? He didn’t bother with the frivolities. “I ended up in a house. I had remembered reading about apparating when preparing for my O.W.Ls so I decided to try it as soon as Bellatrix let go of me. I managed to do it, but I splinched myself,” he added, tugging his shirt down to show the scars on his neck trickling down to his chest, “And I ended up really lost in the middle of nowhere. I wandered around a bit, but I heard Bellatrix’s voice a few hours later. I kept running. I was too scared to apparate again so… I… I just kept running. I wanted to ask for help, but I knew if I ran to muggles that Bellatrix would find and kill them. Or maybe even You-Know-Who.” He tacked on, “I wasn’t sure that if I ran to any wizards that they wouldn’t be a supporter. So I just kept running until eventually I got brave enough to apparate to London.”

Dora nodded slowly. 

“It has some holes, but they won’t think to question it since you were under so much stress.”

“I have answers to everything they might question,” Draco shrugged. He looked warily at the fireplace they were approaching. Andromeda touched his neck lightly. 

“What really happened?” She asked. Draco turned to look at her for a moment.

“I… don’t want to talk about it.” He said, letting his hand drift to the scar. “Let’s just say that Bellatrix told me I can be a Lestrange if I don’t want to be a Malfoy.” He said darkly and grabbed a fist full of floo powder. “Where to?” He asked. 

“Grimmauld.” Ted said. Draco relaxed slightly. Safety. He walked into the flames, throwing them down without a second of hesitation. He knew that there was probably an Order meeting… they would want to question him on his summer too… still, he was excited. Maybe he could see Harry soon. Maybe Hermione and Ron were already there.

The flames cleared. Andromeda and Nymphadora were right behind him. Ted might have been there too, but Draco knew he tended to take a different path in order to divert the floo channels. 

The house was… different than he last saw it. Sirius seemed to finally have won the battle and replaced many of the pureblood decorations. It was freshly painted a scandalous scarlet that would have sent the poor Blacks rolling in their graves. Still, Walburga’s portrait hung strong in the corner. It appeared not all their magic had been stripped away. The thought made him chuckle as he walked forward towards the dining room.

As suspected, a crowd of people were filed inside. Draco bit his lip and knocked slightly at the door frame. The low murmuring fell completely silent. The Order all turned to him unanimously. 

“Holy shit.” Someone muttered.

“...didn’t really believe he was alive.” Another whispered.

Draco looked at them all. He wondered how he must look to all of them. If he was different. He must be. He had to be after this summer. Swallowing, he walked inside to where an empty seat remained before grabbing the watch again and squeezing again. It ticked lowly in response.

“So,” he said lightly and looked at where Andromeda was still standing by the entryway, “I’ll just come right out and say it. I got a tattoo. Sorry, Andromeda.” He said. There were a few low chuckles, but clearly his joke had fallen on a rather difficult audience. 

“You did it then?” Moody asked, tapping his fingers against the table thoughtfully. “They fully accepted you as one of them?” He asked and narrowed his eyes, “How did you pull it off? What did they make you do?” He asked. Draco pursed his lips, trying to keep himself as composed as possible. 

“Amelia Bones is dead,” he started and the already somber room somehow sombered more. “The Dark Lord has plans to - why is Harry here?” He interrupted himself. The smell of spring was overwhelming even outside of animagus form. Sirius gave a light laugh. Something about it was sad.

“He stayed with me this summer,” Sirius told him. Draco stared. Really? Dumbledore allowed that? “He was… not doing the best these past couple months,” he continued slowly, “With you being gone and all. Surprisingly, Severus reasoned with Dumbledore for it,” he added with a stiff nod towards where his godfather had been sitting at the other end of the table. 

Draco raised an eyebrow at that, but Severus didn't look at him. 

“I see, ” Draco said and tapped his fingers absently on the wood, ”Um, Ron and Hermione…?”

“At the Weasleys. They’ll be here tomorrow.” Shacklebolt said and offered a small smile, ”Do you want to say hi? The report can wait-”

“It cannot!” Moody said, scandalized by the mere suggestion of it.

“He’s been gone for three months, Alastor. I think we can handle a few minutes more-"

“I’m sorry, ” Moody scoffed, ”Are we not going to address the obvious here? The boy was taken by Bellatrix Lestrange and we only knew he was even alive because of Severus. Now, we’re just going to trust him?” He asked.

“Are you suggesting my nephew defected?” Andromeda asked hotly. 

“I’m suggesting they tortured him into submission!” Moody shot back, “They kept him locked away. Severus, did you ever see him for more than five minutes at a time?” He demanded. Draco rolled his eyes.

“I did not,” Severus said evenly, “And while I do appreciate your diligence on the matter, I would prefer it if we didn’t treat my godson like a criminal after he just sacrificed three months of sanity for this cause.” He replied coolly. Draco waited. Were they done? Granted, he was actually super touched by Severus’ defense, but still...

”I can give my report.” Draco said, though his eyes flicked to the stairs. Did he realize Draco was here? Probably not. 

”See? He gets it!” Moody grumbled, ”Now, who killed Amelia Bones?”

”I did.” Draco said evenly. Sirius' eyes widened slightly as he glanced at Remus. ”She was one of his more powerful enemies. Bellatrix kidnapped her. I killed her.” He said and licked his lips, ”More importantly, I have a list of people he’s planning to kill. We need to figure out who to save and leave.” He said, pulling out a paper from his pocket and setting it on the table. ”I think it goes without saying that all of you are on it.” 

”Nice to be remembered.” Emmeline snorted, running her hand through her hair. ”Anything else? Or anybody?”

”He wants to talk to Florean Fortescue, ” Draco frowned, ”I’m not sure what for. I don't think he plans to kill him unless he doesn't give the information he wants. I have no idea what that could be, ” Draxo admitted. ”I do know he wants Igor Karkaroff dead for deserting.” 

”He can have that one,” Moody mumbled. ”Fortescue though...” He murmured and tapped his chin thoughtfully. ”I’ll have to look into that one. Does he know you’re telling us this?”

”Yes,” Draco said, ”Fortescue is the only one he doesn't know about. Though, I don't think he realized I overheard so I doubt he’ll connect it back to me.” he shrugged, ”Still. Proceed with caution.” he said and Moody nodded.

”Am I right to assume there are things you won't be telling us?” Remus asked from where he was sitting next to Sirius. His voice was oddly gentle for such a question. Draco grimaced.

”I’ve been given assignments. I won't discuss them with you right now.” He said. Andromeda pursed her lips at that, but nobody argued. Draco would tell Dumbledore to workshop some ideas on how to handle it all, but... he couldn't risk more than that.

”Fair enough,” Sirius said, “We should probably-“

Whatever else he might have said was cut off by the door slamming open. Nymphadora stood by the entrance, leaning against the doorframe with Harry right beside her.

“Sorry,” she greeted, “But I figured Harry waited long enough.” She said, ignoring Moody’s glower before moving over to Remus’ other side. Draco opened his mouth, but fell silent when Harry was suddenly next to him, pulling him silently into a hug.

“Hey,” he greeted softly and hugged him back. He could feel him tremble slightly against him. The smell of wet grass and moss and flowers and the sun-

”I’m so sorry, ” Harry told him when he finally pulled away. Draco grimaced. He didn't want to have this conversation yet. Also...

Sirius had said Harry hadn’t been doing the best over the summer. Draco could see hints of that. Dark circles were under his eyes and skin a shade or two lighter than it normally was...which admittedly was ten times darker than Draco could ever hope to be. Still. It was noticeable. 

However, what Sirius had not mentioned, was that... Well. You see, while puberty hit some like a train, it appeared to have hit Harry like multiple trains combined with a few reductor curses in for good measure.

Draco wasn't quite sure how he felt about it. 

Like, listen, Harry had always been attractive. Draco wasn't blind. However, it was always a subtle thing. Especially when you were able to pick on him about his hair, scrawniness, general lack of decorum... Now? He didn't know what the _fuck_ this was. 

His hair was still messy, but it was long enough that it looked almost intentional now. Like being a rogue, unkillable wizard was more of an aesthetic than an unfortunate stroke of luck. Also... was Sirius making him do sit-ups or something? Wizard reps? He had no business having broad shoulders or - a jawline? Nope. No. _No._

The audacity was really something.

”...been so worried. Are you okay? What happened? How much can you tell me?”

“You’re taller than me.” Draco said, interrupting Harry’s spew of emotions and apologies. He blinked a few times, clearly baffled by the comment. It wasn’t by much, really. Harry was maybe an inch taller (maybe even less… it was hard to tell with all the hair). Still, Draco had _always_ been taller than him. Since the day they met. The only time Harry had a brief amount of height over him was when they took polyjuice potion in their second year. This was absolute nonsense.

“Wha-? I suppose,” Harry frowned and then shifted back as if to get a better look at Draco, “I think you’ve grown too-”

“What the fuck?” Draco said and turned to Sirius. “You did this,” he said with narrowed eyes, “The Dursleys usually starve him. Now look! You gave him proper meals and affection and now he’s a freaking giraffe! How tall even are you?” He demanded. Harry blinked. 

“I… don’t know, Draco.”

“Well, fix it!”

 _“Fix it?!”_ Harry asked and all residual guilt disappeared from his face to make room for the outrage. “Do you hear yourself?” He asked incredulously. “What do you want me to do? Charm myself?”

”Well, that's one solution-”

“I’m not charming myself to shrink!”

“Well, that’s really selfish of you,” Draco grumbled and Harry’s eyes narrowed. “I’ve always been taller. I - are you taller than Ron now? Does Ron know this?” He asked. It was a little inane to fixate on this particular issue, but it seemed better to somehow be upset about this than anything else going on.

“Nah, Ron’s still taller.” Nymphadora said casually, “Not by much though. Guess you and Hermione are the shorter duo now.” She grinned. Her hand was on Remus’ shoulder. Draco tilted his head. Was that a thing now? No way… that wasn’t a thing. He turned his attention back to the menace in front of him.

“I don’t accept this. Ron and I remain the taller duo.” Draco said stubbornly and glared at Harry. This only led to him shaking his head before hugging him again. Draco had been getting a lot of hugs lately. He didn’t mind it too much, actually. It would appear after nearly six years of constant physical affection, he was finally growing fond of it.

“It sounds like you two need to catch up,” Andromeda said, tucking a stray hair behind her ear, “Harry, be sure not to mention that Hermione grew.” She added and when Draco spun around, laughed. “Just kidding.” She said gently. 

Harry rolled his eyes and grabbed Draco’s arm. Before he could object (not that he would… it was just the principle of the matter), he was pulled out of the room towards the hallways.

“Hello, Walburga,” he greeted and there was a grumble from the painting in the hallway as Harry continued to weave them through the halls and into one of the bedrooms.

“I-” Harry started when the door went closed and then frowned, “Hi, professor.” he greeted and Draco turned to see that Severus had followed them. Harry let go, whispering for a moment as Draco stood in the middle of the room, bewildered.

“Very well,” Severus finally said and turned away. 

Huh. Draco plopped himself on the bed towards the far end of the room. 

“What was that about?” Draco asked, nodding towards where Severus disappeared again. Harry glanced over.

“Discussing occlumency stuff.” He said simply and fell on the bed next to him. Draco frowned.

“You’re still learning occlumency?” He asked. Harry turned to look at him, frowning a bit as if offended. Draco tilted his head. 

“Of course,” he said and looked back at the ceiling, “If I had gotten the hang of it the first time… maybe last year wouldn’t have ended the way it did.” He explained quietly. Draco stared, “I think Snape felt the same way. He’s been… much more patient with me. Since you’ve been gone.” He said, “Sirius and him have been… well, I wouldn’t say getting _along_ , but… not hating each other as much.” He mused. Draco scoffed. 

“How terrifying that must be.” 

“When Sirius said ‘thank you’ I knew we were in uncharted territory,” he said and Draco bit back a grin. He rolled over, looming over where Draco was lying to look him over. “You’re different.” He said. Sadly. Regretfully. His eyes fell to his neck and he frowned, reaching over to lightly touch the jagged scars on the side. Draco waited for him to ask… and was grateful when he didn’t. 

“I don’t want to be different.” He said instead and reached up to flick Harry’s glasses, “Besides, I just got here.” He added, “You can’t be sure-”

“I’m sure,” Harry informed him solemnly, “I… don’t really know how, but… I can tell.” He shrugged and bit his lip. He tapped Draco’s arm. “Can I see?” He asked. Grimacing, Draco undid the sleeve of his shirt, rolling up the cuff so his Dark Mark was showing. Silence followed.

“Like it?” Draco finally asked as Harry’s eyes studied it carefully.

“I bet you could get something over it. Muggles sometimes put new tattoos over their old ones. Maybe magical marks are the same.” He mused, fingers tracing over the Dark Mark. Draco laughed. He wondered idly what he would get if he could do such a thing. 

“I don’t think the Dark Lord would like that very much.” 

“Well, it’s not like you’re going back,” Harry said. Draco pursed his lips. “...right?” 

“I don’t want to argue with you about this so soon,” Draco sighed. This did not seem to deter Harry. Draco could already see his face hardening. “My parents could be killed if I don’t do this.”

“Well then maybe they shouldn’t _serve Voldemort,”_ Harry muttered back. Draco inhaled deeply. “And now what? They are going to drag you down with them? That isn’t fair-”

“I am a pureblood child of a Death Eater. The nephew of one of the most famous Death Eaters ever. The godson of one of Voldemort’s favorites. Harry, I was _born_ for this.” He said, finally pulling himself away. “Besides, I - I know most of the Death Eaters don't deserve second chances, or, well, third chances," he admitted with a sigh, "But Severus doesn't really work to help Slytherins or kids of Death Eaters or maybe those who are on the fence about which side to choose. I want to be able to help those people." He reasoned. Harry looked at him for a moment - eyes glittering with an argument he was clearly holding back on, "I'm not saying their entitled to my help, but... I want to help them."

"You can do other things to help people, Draco." Harry said slowly. The 'people who deserve to be helped' went unsaid. Draco didn't answer at first. He knew he was probably on the wrong side of this. Most of his motivations were selfish and based in the fact that these people could have been him. And... well, try as he might... he just couldn't let that go. Not after everything that happened in the past few months.

Perhaps he hadn't grown into as good of a person as he originally thought. Draco knew he was hurting his friends by taking this path. That alone should make him turn his back on the whole thing. Reconsider. Why did he feel it was okay to do this to the people who had given him so much?

Maybe this was just the only way he truly knew how to be brave.

"I survived this summer. I’ll survive the rest.” He finally promised. Harry closed his eyes. He could see the frustration hinting underneath, but kept whatever outburst bubbling underneath to himself. 

He didn’t argue though. Perhaps he knew it was a lost cause… or he wanted to save the fight for a different day. In the end, he just ran a hand over his face, sending his glasses askew.

“What was your summer like?” Draco finally asked. Harry snorted. 

“I’m, um, dating Ginny.” He said and Draco turned to look at him with raised eyebrows. He couldn’t say he was _completely_ surprised. Draco had always thought they might be good together. They had a similar... temperament. Quick to anger, but still incredibly kind and loyal beyond all reason. If anything, they were maybe too similar. Still, there was a part of his chest that seemed to sink at the news. Quickly, he shoved it aside. 

“Really? How did that happen?” He asked and then laughed, “How did Ron take that?” He added. Harry groaned, falling back onto the bed to stare at the ceiling once again.

“I… was a little, you know. Not great. After the Department of Mysteries I got a little obsessed with… things. Focused on occlumency all the time. Trying to figure out where Voldemort was hiding. I had Sirius and Remus train me when I couldn’t sleep. Everyone tried to help, but… they were all really gentle about it. Ginny was the only one to tell me to snap out of it.“ He shrugged, “I just preferred to be around her. Then I kissed her and that was that.” He said. A pause. “Ron was...not thrilled. At first.”

Draco laughed.

“I don’t know,” Harry admitted, “Things are kind of confusing right now, seems like a bad time to date. We’re trying though.” He admitted. Draco hummed. He could understand that. “What about you? Any Death Eaters catch your fancy?” He asked lightly. Draco grimaced.

“Well…” He began and Harry sat up. “Calm _down_ ,” he laughed, “I don’t know if you would say I fancy her. I just... really clicked with her,” Draco said and paused to think. “Her name is Astoria.” 

“Daphne Greengrass’ sister?” 

“Yep,” Draco said, popping the p. “Her family was recruited. They agreed to serve the Dark Lord, but…” He trailed off. He wasn’t sure what to say. There was something about this girl. This fourteen-year-old who he had seen shoved off in the corner. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it. As if he knew her already. “Mr. Greengrass killed a muggle to prove himself. Her face when he did…” He said. “I couldn’t just leave her with them… so instead I smuggled her out.”

Harry tensed.

“You what?” He asked and Draco clicked his tongue. “Draco, the stuff with Blaise and Pansy was one thing, but you can’t just smuggle out Death Eaters’ children out from under Voldemort’s nose!” He said and when Draco offered a weak grin pointed, “Don’t.” 

“Doesn’t really have a nose-”

“ _Draco_ ,” Harry groaned, “How did you even…? Are you sure he didn’t know it was you?” He asked. Draco nodded. He was pretty sure nobody would notice Astoria going missing until it was far too late. Voldemort had no use for someone so young. It was easy enough to confound her family into thinking she was vacationing with her grandmother. Nobody would know until after the school year, probably. ”Well,” Harry finally said, accepting the nonsense, “That was really brave.”

“She made that part easy, ” Draco said absently, “In the same way you do.” 

He didn't really think about the words too much, but they were true enough. Harry made being brave a bit of a contradiction. Around him, there was never any fear or danger… just fear of being afraid.

Logically, he knew Harry probably felt fear as they all did. Maybe. Harry sighed and grabbed his arm again. At first, Draco thought he was trying to look at his Dark Mark again only to notice him staring at the back of Draco's hand. Oh. Right. The scars on his hand had faded slightly - not completely, but almost. He hadn't used the blood quill as often as Harry had. There was even a chance it might not be permanent.

"It saved my life," Draco told him and Harry glanced up, "They were really on the fence with me... especially after the fight. All the little things though. My stuff with Montague. The knives. The fact I knew dark magic. My hand... it built me up quite the case. At least enough so they didn't kill me immediately." He said rubbed the back of his hands absently. Harry bit his lip.

"Will... you tell me more about what happened?" He asked cautiously. Draco tensed. No. No, he wasn't ready for that. Harry must have seen this because he dropped it within seconds, squeezing Draco's hand instead, “I should let you know,” he said, “I expanded the DA too. Sort of. I ended up being really productive these last couple months.” He said. Draco turned to look at him.

“You… wait, what?” Draco frowned, “You’ve been training the DA? Here?” He asked, gesturing vaguely around Grimmauld place. “How? Doesn’t that put Sirius at risk?” He asked, propping himself up on his elbows. Harry snorted.

“Sirius was exonerated,” He said and Draco’s brows raised more. He hadn’t heard that, “After the Death Eaters all went to Azkaban and what not, the Order went to the ministry. That’s kind of why him and Snape are on such good terms. He spoke at the trial.”

“No fucking way,” Draco gaped, “Severus spoke at Sirius’ hearing?” He asked and when Harry nodded, shook his head. The day was getting stranger and stranger. “Huh.”

“Yeah… by the way, did you tell him about the Dursleys?” Harry asked and when Draco tilted his head, shrugged. “I asked him why he was helping. He said something about my aunt and uncle. Then he mentioned you and said he should have known Petunia would be like that.” He said and shook his head, “Did you tell him my aunt’s name?” 

Interesting.

“I went off on him during our third year,” Draco shrugged, “Maybe he was thinking about some of the stuff I said… I didn’t ever mention their first names though. I’m pretty sure he knew your mother.” He added. Harry blinked. “I don’t really know the details, but… some of the stuff he says. I think he knew her well, actually. I know he hated your dad and stuff, but it might have been different with her.”

“Nah,” Harry waved him away, “I saw a memory with him and my mom. He called her a mudblood.” He explained. Draco frowned. His godfather was an odd one.

“Really?” He asked, “Severus has never used that word.” He mused. Harry only gave a hum of acknowledgement. “Well, that’s for another time. If this is still the headquarters for the Order, why are you bringing DA members here?” He asked. Harry laughed.

“I knew you would ask that. So paranoid.” He said, almost fondly. Draco would have shot out a rebuke, but Harry had already started talking again, “I already thought of everything,” he said and then went on to explain how he had, in fact, thought of everything. Draco was a little impressed. Not only had Harry found a way to keep DA members confined to certain parts of the house, he also only used portkeys so nobody would actually figure out where Grimmuald place was. 

“Remus and Sirius were mad about it at first,” Harry admitted, “But now they help me… I don’t think Remus can resist teaching.” He grinned. Draco laughed at that. “By the way… him and Tonks…?” 

“I was really hoping you could tell me what that’s all about.” 

* * *

When Draco opened his eyes he was back home. 

Only, not really. Over the years and through the trials his home had shifted from his parents high-end real estate to Andromeda’s cottage. Even now, this wasn’t the place he had grown up in. Things had changed. So had the people here. 

“How does it feel to be back?” Bellatrix asked, running a finger over his shoulder, “Oh, Cissy!” She sang, not waiting for an answer. “Come quick! The ministry will be here soon!” She giggled.

“Bellatrix.” A soft voice said and Draco flinched. Right. They weren’t alone, were they? He turned to find a pair of red eyes fixed on him. “We are not done here.”

He had never seen his aunt go from giddy to panicked so quickly.

“No - master, of course. I- I didn’t mean-”

“I asked you,” Voldemort said, robes sweeping broadly as he turned, “To bring me the prophecy. You told me you could do this.” He said, taking a step towards her. Bellatrix took a sharp breath, stepping back slightly.

“M-master, I-”

“So where is it?”

Bellatrix flinched as if he had just hit her instead. There was a moment of silence as her eyes fell, giving whispered apologies and desperate explanations until Voldemort tapped his wand under her chin to force her to look up.

“I’ve failed you.” She said miserably and then turned her eyes to Draco, “But… master, I did my best to make up for it once I realized the prophecy was gone. I brought you a spy-”

“You could have brought me Potter.” Voldemort said and lowered his wand, “Instead you brought me the son of yet another follower who has failed me.” 

This would be a good time for Draco to talk. He had been frozen during the conversation so far. His heart was thumping wildly and throat tight. Slowly, he straightened himself up.

“Potter isn’t your only enemy,” he said cautiously. Both Bellatrix and Voldemort paused. “Dumbledore. Sirius Black. Mad-Eye Moody. The Order,” he shrugged. “They all trust me.” He said. Voldemort stared.

“Do they now?” He asked, almost a little sarcastically, which was a little strange to see on someone like Voldemort. “Unsurprising, given you had spent your years battling my attempts to return and trying to attack my servants.” He said coldly. “I rather liked Crouch. I was displeased to hear you had a hand in his demise.”

….alright, yeah. These were all fair points. Severus had trained him for this though.

“He failed you. All your Death Eaters failed you.” He said, and tossed his wand at his Voldemort’s feet. “Kill me if you really think I am no use to you. I would rather be dead anyways if I’m stuck in that bloody house with those mudbloods and bloodtraitors a second longer.” He sneered, “At least under your instruction there’s a purpose-”

“Draco?”

And there was his mother. He tried not to react too much to her. Narcissa was in an evening gown, eyes flicking over the room carefully until it landed on Voldemort...then Draco.

“The ministry has arrested your husband,” Voldemort told her, eyes not leaving Draco. ”They’ll be raiding your house. We need to collect everything we’ve stored here.” He said. Draco waited.

“I see,” his mother finally said, “I will collect some items - may I ask why he is here?” She asked. Her voice was calm, but Draco could see a hint of anxiety behind her otherwise blank features. 

“Your son has volunteered his services,” Voldemort said and flicked his wrist so Draco’s wand came to him. “We’re about to see just how serious he is about his request.” He said and licked his lips. “Bellatrix, help your sister.” He ordered. Draco swallowed. “As for you…” he said softly and raised his wand, “Let’s see how useful you can be.” 

Draco woke with a gasp.

“No,” he managed as his mind spun around in a whirl of panic. Where was he? He wasn’t safe. He wasn’t -

“Draco? Hey-”

“ _No-”_ he choked out, “Don’t. Please.” He whispered and a hand was on his shoulder, squeezing tightly. “Please.” He repeated numbly. Something brushed his cheek.

“Hey, it’s me.” Harry’s voice said, “It was a dream.” He said and Draco blinked a few times. “You’re okay.” He added and the world came back into focus.

“Shit,” Draco greeted and fell back onto the bed. Harry’s hand clasped around his knee. “Good morning.” He managed and grabbed the watch around his neck again. He squeezed tightly. More warmth came through. A burst of faith that momentarily slowed his heart down to normal speeds.

Harry snorted.

“Good morning. Are you-”

“Fine.” Draco interrupted. Harry nodded. Lightly, he pushed Draco to the side, “What are you doing now?” he asked warily as he allowed himself to be shoved on the other side of the bed. Harry got under the covers.

“Sleeping.” He answered and Draco scowled.

“There’s a perfectly good bed over-”

“Good night,” Harry said and took off his glasses to carelessly throw them to the ground. Draco opened his mouth to argue, but snapped it shut when Harry rolled over. Whatever. It wasn’t worth it.

“Good night,” he said and looked at the clock on the wall. Three in the morning. It appeared as though their on and off good mornings and good nights weren’t entirely nonsensical. He tried not to notice how close they were… the bed was kind of small. Harry showed no signs of leaving though. It left Draco trying not to choke on his scent before he eventually let go of the chain around his neck and drifted off back to sleep.

The rest of the night was dreamless. 

* * *

Heads up. If one ever disappears into the clutches of Death Eaters for a few months, expect a lot of people to touch you afterwards…. And cry.

Seriously, there was hugging, hair touching, cheek patting, random kissing, hand holding, crying tears of happiness, crying tears of regret - it was a mess.

Hermione, in particular, had latched onto him with an impressive strength and just outright refused to let go.

“I’m okay, ‘mione,” he tried only for a small sniff to be given in return. “I missed you too.” He said and patted her back awkwardly, “But we’ve been standing here for ten minutes now.”

This did not convince her.

“I want a turn to hug him!” Ron complained. Draco wanted to object that they had never been the hugging type, but Ron didn’t seem to care because the second Hermione let go... he replaced her. 

Draco sighed…and then hugged him back because quite honestly he hadn’t been sure if he would be able to ever hug Ron or Hermione again.

“What happened to your neck?” Ron asked as he let go. Hermione hit his arm. “What?”

“Torture.” Draco said simply and then backtracked at their faces, “Just a bit though. Not… not too much. Just the amount you would expect.” He said. 

This didn’t seem to help. 

“I hope you tortured them back,” Ginny said calmly from where she had been patiently waiting for the others to stop smothering him. Draco smiled at her. “You know, with your charming personality.”

“Of course,” he grinned and paused when a small knock caught their attention. Mrs. Weasley (who had been discreetly sliding food towards him throughout this entire situation), yanked out her wand. 

“Declare yourself!” She shouted at the door. A few others also grabbed at their wands, atmosphere tensing slightly. Draco grabbed the watch again before reaching for his own wand as well.

“It is I, Dumbledore, bringing Harry.” A voice said. Everyone visibly relaxed. Right. Harry. Dumbledore had asked for him this morning and Draco hadn’t seen him since. The door cracked open to reveal the pair standing outside with wary smiles. “Hello, Molly.” Dumbledore said pleasantly. 

“Oh, come in.” Molly said as Moody appeared from nowhere to start quizzing them both (to make sure neither were imposters, of course).

“Hey you,” Ginny greeted from where she had sidled up next to Draco. 

“Hey,” Harry greeted and kissed her on the cheek.

Gross. Ron made a face at them, but kept silent other than that. Bill had no such qualms.

“Aw, how cute,” he cooed as Harry flushed, “We have _two_ pairs of love birds-”

“Shut it.” Ginny advised and interlaced her and Harry’s fingers. Draco stared.

_Gross._

No offense, of course. Ginny and Harry were an adorable couple. He just meant… okay, he wasn’t sure what he meant. Except he did. Listen, Draco had a rough summer. Nobody should expect him to be coherent. Especially about emotions. 

Not that he had any particular emotions on this matter. In fact, this didn’t even involve him-

“Draco? Are you okay?” Hermione asked warily. He jumped a bit before nodding quickly. He hadn’t even been sure what he was thinking about, quite frankly. “...are there too many people here? Do you need to leave?” She asked. 

“No, Hermione. I’m seriously okay.” He promised and grabbed her hand, “I just want to know how I did on my O.W.Ls.” He snorted. Hermione raised an eyebrow. “And I’m little worried that Harry and Ron might have failed-”

“And we thought he might have changed.” Ron interrupted. There was a note of fondness there before he turned to find others rushing out to greet them. Everyone - well, mostly everyone - seemed happy to see them. Draco was well aware he now was the focus of some suspicious eyes. While his friends might consider the trauma he went through… well, there were others like Moody who… just kind of thought about the other stuff.

It appeared Dumbledore was one of them. Draco could feel the man’s eyes on him - studying him intently. He stared back with equal fortitude. 

Meanwhile, Sirius rushed over to hug Harry as if it had been more than a measly four hours since they had last seen one another. In general, it was actually really endearing how excited Sirius was to be out in public. Draco couldn’t help but grin as he watched his cousin drift around the burrow. They had to all move outside mostly due to his insistence (“Please, Molly? I need to reacquaint with the sun, you know!”) and had taken to switching between his animagus and human form so he could roll around in the mud. 

“Engaged?” Draco was asking as Fleur grabbed his hands, speaking in rapid French to explain the situation. “So soon?”

Fleur’s face dropped. 

“You do not approve,” she said sourly and let go of him. Draco blinked. “Do you think me too shallow?” She asked defensively. Draco shook his head, a bit bewildered. It was only after a few glances towards Molly and Ginny that Draco caught on. Ah. “It is not my fault there is nothing to do here! All I can do is cook and-”

“Fleur,” Draco interrupted gently, “Maybe you need to… um, soften your words a bit?” He asked. Fleur stared. “I’m not the best at it either,” he shrugged, “But people don’t always like it when you’re blunt.”

“I am honest!”

“That’s what I say too,” he laughed, “But Molly might not be pleased with you calling her home boring.” He explained. Fleur sighed. He could read her expression clearly. _But it is._

Secretly, Draco sometimes agreed… he just liked Molly too much to ever say so. Plus, Fred and George might just kill him under the guise of a prank if their last name was ever associated with the word ‘boring’ again given their new enterprise. 

“I’ll talk to Ginny.” He decided. Before he could pull away, Fleur gripped his wrist to tug him back. He frowned, tensing a little under her touch to stare back. Her eyes seemed solemn as she looked him over.

“I am sorry,” she said suddenly and Draco blinked, “This is trivial. You’ve been gone with those monsters…” she shook her head, silver hair practically floating around her with the movement. “You don’t need to play peacemaker with me and my family.”

Draco inwardly smiled. They might not all get along, but the fact Fleur already called the Weasleys her family told him that there wouldn’t be trouble between them for long. If there is one thing he had learned over the years… if you accepted the name Weasley then you were one of them. 

“I need something to keep my mind busy,” he said and patted her hand, “Don’t worry about me.” He added and slipped away from under her grip. A stab of exasperation rolled in the pit of his stomach. Don’t worry. I’m okay. Everything is fine. Let’s not talk about it. Maybe we should focus on something else - it was all he would be saying for the next couple months, wouldn’t he? 

The thought was cumbersome.

“Hey, seeker.” Draco said as he sat next to Ginny, flicking some food from the center of the table at her as he did so. She responded by trying to smash a cupcake on his face. “Listen,” he told her after they were done fighting, “About Fleur-”

“Ah, yes. Phlegm.” Ginny muttered. Draco sighed. Oh boy.

“English isn’t her first language,” he reminded her, “She doesn’t know how to use tact yet.” He said. Ginny remained unimpressed, “Besides, Fleur’s awesome. She’s really smart - working at Gringotts is no easy feat - and she was a champion.” He reminded her. Ginny still remained unimpressed. “It’s not like she’s a gold digger or anything…”

“Excuse me?” 

“Oh, come off it,” Draco rolled his eyes, “I wasn’t criticizing. As a former rich kid-”

“Former,” Ginny grumbled, “I’ve seen what Andromeda buys you.”

“Considering my summer, I think I’m entitled to a few nice things,” he said. At that Ginny, flinched as if he had hit her. “Sorry. I wanted to try the Death Eater card. Maybe it’s too soon.” He shrugged. Ginny narrowed her eyes before sighing deeply, looking towards where Bill and Fleur were talking to one another.

“I should probably try to get along with her… given she appears to be staying. Bill wants us to be friendly,” she said and bit the inside of her cheek, “I just hate that she treats us like some sort of weird… subpar vacation.” 

That was probably fair. 

“Yeah… it’s just different upbringings. I’m sure you guys will figure it out,” he shrugged and ran a hand over his face. After a few moments of silence he spoke again “So… you and the chosen one, huh?” He asked. Ginny laughed, looking down the table at where Ron and Harry were both whispering to one another. “It seems your poem from our second-year finally won him over.”

“Do _not-_ ”

“What was it again? His eyes were as green as a frog? A toad? It was something romantic, I’m sure.” He laughed and dodged her hit. “Wait, wait. His hair was as dark as a _blackboard_ , right? I, for one, do love blackboards-”

“I’ll bloody hex you, Malfoy.” Ginny said, but was cut off by a loud gasp. 

“DRACO!” Someone shouted and Draco turned to see Gabrielle Delacour standing in the doorway. She was here too? He hadn’t known that. Before he could even think of a greeting, Gabrielle had gone into a full sprint to launch herself at him, sending both tumbling out of the chair and to the ground. “ _I’ve missed you so much!”_

“I, uh, I missed you too-”

“Fleur said you went on a surprise trip!”

“Um, yeah. It was a bit of a surprise to me too-”

“Where did you go?” Gabrielle said and then pulled his hands, “Come on. I can show you my uniform! It looks like Fleur’s but I put ribbons on it.” She explained, dragging him away from the table, “Come look, come look!”

Yeah, sure. Everyone is down to protect him from the Death Eaters, but when Gabrielle Delacour kidnapped him none of these cowards even tried to save him. Traitors.

* * *

Listen, Draco wasn’t the kind of person to get ‘involved’ in other people’s business, but… he did love his cousin a lot… and just wanted to see what was up with… things.

“Oh, not you too.” Dora groaned as they walked down Diagon Alley, “Just get your shopping done and we can-”

“No, no, no. I have questions for you,” he said, stepping in front of her, “Firstly, are you aware that there are thirteen years between you and Remus? That’s kind of a lot.” He said. Dora stared at him. “I know you’re twenty-four or whatever, but…” He gestured vaguely, “Kind of weird.”

“Kind of…? Our family literally inbreeds, Draco. Shut up.” She snapped. 

He couldn’t really argue that. 

“I like Remus,” Draco pressed on anyways, “And I support you because I am a supportive person,” he added and Dora snorted, “...how does your mom feel about it?” He asked, knowing that was the million dollar question. Dora froze. “Not a fan of the werewolf bit?” 

He watched as she closed her eyes, looking somewhere between defeated and exasperated.

“My mother has defied a lot of the customs and pureblood stigmas she was raised with,” Dora told him with a sigh, “But… she hasn’t gotten completely over all of them,” she admitted. He hummed. “Let’s talk about something else,” she grumbled. Draco shrugged. “Is it worth asking you what you were doing at Borgin and Burke’s earlier?” She asked. Draco laughed and absently touched the watch around his neck.

“Nope.”

“Death Eater stuff?”

“Yep.”

“Any chance you’ll tell me?”

“Hm… no.” He said with a small smile as he picked up a few more books on his list. He should probably buy a few extra. Neville might not think he was taking potions this year… but he was. Draco would ensure it. Harry too. If anyone could talk Severus into letting them into the N.E.W.T courses it was him… though maybe he would just buy one extra. He was on a budget after all. Dora shrugged.

“Alright,” she said, “I guess we’ll have to talk about _your_ love life.” She said, clicking her tongue. Draco put a book back down to give her a pointed look. “Hey, I think there’s someone.” She said.

“Oh, sure. In between my extensive service to the Dark Lord I had a snog with a bloke down the street.” He muttered and tossed another book into the pile levitating behind him. Dora laughed. “I can’t even think of anyone at school I would be remotely interested in dating.” He added.

_Liar, liar, liar-_

“Really?” She asked, “You went through the whole school that quickly, huh?” She asked and helped him pile on more books. When Draco didn’t respond, she rolled her eyes. “Hey, look. I know that… things have changed. How you view the world has probably changed. How safe you feel or… what you think you believe in. I can’t imagine what they drilled into your head.” She frowned and put a hand on his shoulder, “But you have another two years at school. Try to live a somewhat normal life while you can… at least while you’re there.” She said and squeezed tightly, “Okay?”

Draco grimaced.

“I guess,” he said and ran a hand through his hair, “But at the same time… I also don’t… really care about that stuff anymore? I don’t know. Just the thought of asking someone about their family over dinner makes me want to throw up. Besides, I don’t want to learn more about someone who might die in the next few years.” He grumbled. There was a long pause of silence.

“Fine,” Dora told him, “But promise me if you _do_ start to feel something… don’t push it away. Getting a little bit of time is better than nothing at all.” She said and put an arm around his shoulders before he could give her that promise, “Now, we have a local business to support-”

“No,” Draco groaned, “I don’t want to go!”

“Fred and George have worked very hard for this. Don’t be a brat.” Dora said as she dug out some coins to pay for Draco’s small library behind them. “Besides, I think it’s brilliant! Not to mention perfect for a time like this. Humor is good during dark times.” She reasoned. Draco made a face. Now seemed like an awful time for pranks, but whatever. 

It was where everyone else was at least… and by everyone else he didn’t just mean his friends and the Weasleys. Literally, _everyone_ in Diagon Alley. Sirius in particular seemed to be enjoying himself. He had gathered a small crowd of tentative onlookers who were all listening to his wild tales of being wrongly imprisoned as he dumped more and more merchandise into a bag. Harry was watching fondly from the corner, playing absently with a daydream charm.

“You’re never going to get him back into Grimmauld place,” Draco greeted. Harry chuckled. “Ten galleons he writes a book and becomes bloody rich.”

“Fred and George already offered him a job here,” Harry rolled his eyes, “Sirius is _thrilled_. He keeps telling me how much my dad would have loved it.” He added, a bit softer towards the end. “I wouldn’t rule the book out though. He would love an excuse to bash the ministry.” He added. Draco nodded. If anyone could expose the ministry it would be Sirius.

“He deserves it. Twelve years in Azkaban. One on the run. One in that house. He needs to at least have some fun before we all die.” He said. Harry’s eyes snapped to him. “Sorry. Too morbid?” He asked. Harry only looked at him for a moment before shrugging.

“We’ll figure it out,” he said… though the words sounded tired. “Somehow.” He murmured. Draco felt a stab of guilt at that and nodded. Sure. Draco would at least see to it they had a chance - or die trying. He glanced over to where Ginny was cooing over a Pygmy Puff. “How was Borgin and Burke’s?” He tacked on. Draco turned to stare at him.

“Why do you always do this?”

“Do what?”

“ _Harry,”_ Draco grumbled, “Please, just stay out of it. Did you seriously follow me?” He asked and then narrowed his eyes. “Did Ron and Hermione go with you?” He asked. Harry at least looked a little guilty.

“We wouldn’t have to follow you if you just _included_ us,” he said, turning to face him, “Look, I know I haven’t been… supportive, but if you’re going to do this then just let us help. So we know what’s going on-”

“The more I tell you will just make you try to talk me out of it more.”

“You see, _this_ is why I’m stressed out.” Harry said, hitting the railing next to them as if he had somehow proved a point, “You don’t have to even go back. We’ll protect you!”

“And what about my family, Harry? My mother?” He asked. Sure, his father is in Azkaban, but he will leave eventually… and Voldemort would be waiting. “I can help our side like this too. We’ve already been through this-”

“Then let’s hide your mother. I bet we could talk to Fudge and get your father somewhere safer too.” Harry reasoned, “Dumbledore could do something… or Sirius!” He added, gesturing to where Sirius now had half the store enraptured by the tale of him being an illegal animagus. 

“My mother is being stubborn about staying,” Draco sighed, pinching the bridge of nose. “Trust me, I’m thoroughly frustrated on the matter. Loving someone who is determined to endanger their own lives is… no easy feat.”

“Oh, I wonder what that would be like,” Harry muttered. Draco rolled his eyes. “Fine. Be stubborn about it… just don’t be surprised when I keep trying to look out for you,” he told him with a scowl, “And remember I have the map.” He added. Draco made a face. He _hated_ that damn map.

“Harry-”

“Draco.” Harry snapped back. They looked at each other. “I can get Hermione involved in this.” He added, “You want her to be involved in this? Ron too. In fact, Ron might be even better since he won’t care if he hurts your feelings.” He added. Draco bit his tongue. He wished Harry didn’t know all his weak spots.

“....go talk to your girlfriend.” He grumbled and walked over to find Ron. 

“Harry annoying you?” He asked as a greeting. Draco nodded and banged his head against Ron’s shoulder. “Hm. Yeah, I reckon you two are going to be at each other’s throats a lot this year. He said and offered a brightly wrapped candy. “Want one? It tastes like pineapple.”

“Is it going to make me throw up?” He asked. Ron laughed, which wasn’t an answer so Draco just put it in his pocket, “Hey… he really worried for you. We all did.” Ron told him lightly. Draco nodded. He knew… he wished they hadn’t. Ron looked him over before sighing and tugging him towards the opposite end of the store. “Come on,” he said, “We’re going to see if we can learn some muggle magic tricks to get you extra credit in muggle studies.”

* * *

The train ride was going fine up until bloody Slughorn invited them for tea. Draco made a face. He had been a little baffled by the fact Harry said the man was apparently teaching defense this year (his father had said he was a potions teacher, hadn’t he?) but more importantly, he remembered being warned about the man’s ‘networking’ parties. 

Quite frankly, he didn’t want any part in it. He had expected Harry would get roped in, but he had hoped his Death Eater roots would keep him from getting involved in that nonsense. He had heard of Slug Club long before he had even come to Hogwarts. He looked over at Neville, Ginny, and Luna on the other side of their compartment. Neville and Ginny had been invited, which was something, but he wanted more company.

“You are coming.” He said and jerked his head for Luna to follow. She gave a beaming smile before hopping up. Just as she went to move forward, she hesitated.

“I wasn’t invited.”

“We’re inviting you,” Harry said, catching on quickly. Good. He must have realized Slughorn was up to nonsense. “Luna, you’re my plus one.” He said. Draco snorted and looked at Neville expectantly. Rolling his eyes, he got up. Good. Draco wasn’t being dragged into alone. He would bring an army with him if he had to. 

Slughorn was surely surprised when they entered.

“Why - hello there!” He said, looking curiously at Luna. Ginny immediately interlinked arms with her before giving a very fierce glare. “I see you brought a guest?”

“No tea party is any fun without Luna,” Neville said and Draco nodded.

“She was also with us when we fought in the Department of Mysteries,” He added and stuck out his hand, “Hi. I’m Draco by the way. That’s Neville Longbottom. Luna Lovegood. Ginny Weasley and you’ve met Harry.” He added. Slughorn gave them each a warm smile.

“Of course! Welcome. Draco… Malfoy?” He asked, a little too innocently for Draco’s taste. 

“Draco Malfoy. Draco Tonks. Draco Delacour. Draco Weasley. I have been aggressively adopted by many families unfortunately.” He shrugged and pulled out a chair for Luna. Slughorn flicked his wand and another one slid up for him. 

“I see, I see. I heard of the accident this summer as well. Very impressive. Unfortunate, but _astounding_ you made it back.” He told him. Harry pursed his lips, looking Slughorn up down with a very clear wariness before sitting down.

“It was… quite eventful.” He said coolly and glanced over at the table. Aside from Harry, Neville, Ginny, and Luna there was Marcus Belby, Cormac McLaggen, and Tristam. 

“Hi guys!” Tristam greeted with a wave, “Glad to see some more friendly faces.” He said before looking pointedly at McLaggen. Draco smiled to himself. Oh, he would _eat_ him alive. Harry must have sensed Draco’s excitement because he sent him an exasperated smile before sitting down. 

“Well,” Slughorn said as he sat down, “I am so pleased to be able to meet some of Hogwart’s finest! I’ve heard so much about you all.” He said, flicking his wand to pour them all some tea. Draco froze. The room seemed to chill for a moment as he watched the teapot move around the compartment -

_“Here, darling, have something to drink. Quick.”_

_“Bellatrix-”_

_“Drink!”_

“...Draco?”

His eyes snapped up to find Neville frowning at him. Has someone been saying something to him? He swallowed and immediately grabbed the watch around his neck to calm himself. He waited until the warmth came over him once more before speaking. 

“Sorry,” He said and pushed the cup away from him. “I, um, don’t drink tea.” He told them and winced at how his voice shook. Harry’s eyes snapped to him. Great. More concern. “What were you saying?” He asked as Slughorn looked him over curiously. 

“Ah, pumpkin juice then.” He said and flicked his wand again. Draco gave a tight smile. “I was just saying that I have heard quite extraordinary things about you since your sorting. You and Mr. Potter had gone on some grand adventures, hm?” He asked. Draco laughed.

“Harry goes on grand adventures. I just keep him alive.” He said with a small smirk. Harry made a face in return as Slughorn gave a loud laugh of approval, “In truth, it is mainly Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley who keep us both on our toes.” He added. 

“Ah, I see.” Slughorn hummed. He asked a few more questions, bouncing between them all in what was clearly an interview, "Now, you, Cormac, I happen to know you see a lot of your Uncle Tiberius, because he has a rather splendid picture of the two of you hunting nogtails in, I think, Norfolk?" He asked. McLaggan chuckled. 

"Oh, yeah, that was fun, that was. We went with Bertie Higgs and Rufus Scrimgeour; this was before he became Minister, obviously -"

“Oh?” Draco interrupted, pleased to have found a good spot to infiltrate. “Back when he was Head of the Auror office then?” He asked and clicked his tongue, “My cousin always had complaints about him. She says he prefers the appearance of safety over actual safety.” He said. Cormac bristled. 

“That is no way to speak of the minister!”

“Is it not? I do wish more had spoken ill of Fudge sooner. You know, back when he was out denying the Dark Lord returned and what not,” he shrugged and then snapped his fingers, “Though… you’re family had ties with him too, right? I suppose the ministry family is quite small.” He said. 

Tristam snorted into his tea.

“Better the ministry than a banshee,” Cormac said coldly. Tristam rolled his eyes. Draco shrugged. His work was done.

“I think banshees are quite lovely once you get to know them,” Luna piped in. Tristam paused at that, looking her over curiously. Draco was pretty sure Luna and Tristam had met through the DA a few times, but nothing too terribly more than learning jinxes together. “Really they’re only fatal if you make them scream… so don’t make them scream.” She said simply. 

“Exactly!” Tristam cried, throwing his arms out. “I keep telling people my grandmother was a lovely woman-”

“Is your scream fatal?” Belby cut in, twisting his hands together nervously. Tristam pursed his lips. 

“No, but I can sometimes make people pass out.” He said. Harry nodded in agreement, probably remembering that he took down Rodolphus last year with that scream. Luna smiled at him warmly.

“You do have a lovely voice,” she informed him graciously, “And I would imagine you have your grandmother’s hair too!” 

Tristam touched his hair at the comment. It was long and black, tied up into a bun at the nape of his neck. Draco wasn’t surprised. It was rather beautiful and Zoe told him flat out she would hex him if ever cut it.

“Thank you,” he said, eyes turning to Luna completely now with utter adoration, “My mother and I have her eyes too, you know. Everyone thinks banshees have black eyes, but they tend to vary. My grandmother’s were amber.” He said. Luna nodded in approval.

“Aren’t banshees supposed to look like zombies?” Belby asked, still looking cautious. Tact was not strong with this one. Hermione would probably have scolded him if she were here.

“Only when they scream,” Luna said and sipped her tea, “Otherwise they can pass for humans… mostly. You can always tell something isn’t quite the same.” She mused. Tristam grabbed his tea and pushed Draco’s chair over so he could squeeze between them.

“Sorry, I want to sit next to her.” He said and stuck his tongue out at McLaggen. Slughorn gave a delighted laugh.

“I’m glad to see we’re getting to know one another better,” he mused, “And what of you, young Marcus?” He asked, turning to Belby. “You know, I had the pleasure of teaching your Uncle Damocles. Outstanding wizard, _outstanding_ , and his Order of Merlin most well-deserved. Do you see much of your uncle, Marcus?"

There was an awkward pause. 

"Not… not much of him, no." Belby said. Slughorn hummed. 

**“** Well, of course, I daresay he's busy. I doubt he invented the Wolfsbane Potion without considerable hard work!"

"I suppose… Er… he and my dad don't get on very well, you see, so I don't really know much about…" He trailed off. Ooh. He was out. Draco could already see the disapproval on Slughorn’s face. He rather quickly turned his attention onto Neville. Draco watched carefully as Neville skirted around questions about his parents, denying he had their talents as aurors.

“His plants will probably save us all though,” Draco cut in before Neville could dig himself in further. Why was everyone at this table so bad at rich people things? He had to do all the work… “You see, Neville is probably the most talented herbalist in Hogwarts,” he explained, “He actually helped Harry with his second task in the Twi-wizarding tournament, didn’t he?” He asked. Harry nodded. “Not to mention him and I have been figuring out sight potions…” he mused. Slughorn blinked.

“A what?” He asked. At this, Neville brightened.

“Draco wants to be a healer,” he jumped in fondly, “He’s quite incredible at potions and knows every healing draft out there,” he added and Draco grinned at him, “So we’re working together to figure out a new potion to alleviate the need for glasses. It, um, bothers him for some reason-”

“I am the reason,” Harry volunteered, “He’s tired of him and Hermione having to fix my glasses all the time.” 

“Don’t be cocky,” Draco sniffed, “I just don’t understand why we haven’t found a solution to this yet. Glasses cause so many problems. Harry has almost killed himself being so blind!”

“I thought I wasn’t the reason?”

“You are the _example_ ,” Draco snapped and Harry gave a light laugh in return, “Along with Dumbledore, McGonagall, Flitwick-”

“I can’t believe you got him started on this again.” Ginny said, “He went on and on about this to Fred and George, already.” She sighed and sipped her tea. Neville, on the other hand, was nodding. 

“I’ve been meaning to tell you,” he said, “We should try wiggentree bark. I’m growing a new batch and can get you some. I think if I modify it or crossbreed with dittany-” He started. Ginny leaned in and whispered something in Harry’s ear. Whatever. Gross. 

“My goodness,” Slughorn beamed, “I hadn’t realized what a group of entrepreneurs we had!” He said brightly. “Mr. Potter, I do admire your friends.” He chuckled. Draco rolled his eyes.

“Now, now. We all know Harry is only here because of Fleamont.” He said teasingly. Harry fixed him with a baffled glare. Wait. “...your grandfather.” Draco clarified. Harry blinked.

“You know who my grandfather is?”

Draco slammed the table in outrage.

“Are you _kidding_ me?” He demanded, making everyone jump, “Harry! Why don’t you know these things? Fleamont Potter is a national treasure.”

“He’s _alive?!”_ Harry demanded and Draco resisted the urge to throw something at him.

“No!” Draco said and ran a hand over his face, dear _God_. He tried to imagine if he had been sorted into Slytherin… if he remained with his parents and kept his blood purist ways… then, years later, he had an actual conversation with Harry and found out he didn’t know that his own grandfather was a bloody hero… He was pretty sure he would have died on the spot. “Everyone knows that Fleamont died of Dragon Pox alongside Euphemia. How do you think you got so bloody rich? He’s the inventor of Sleekeazy!” 

Harry blinked.

“Who’s Euphemia?” He finally asked. Ginny patted his shoulder consoling as Draco turned to look at Neville in what he hoped to be shared horror. “Why am I expected to know these things?” He grumbled grumpily. 

Ugh. How was _this_ the boy that Draco - uh, nevermind. Quickly, Draco went back to his pumpkin juice.

Everything was fine.

* * *

_Severus_ was the new DADA professor! That made so much more sense. Draco felt a stab of fondness at the announcement. He knew how badly Severus had wanted the job… even if he never outright said it. Ron and Harry gave exasperated claps of support, though they did look slightly bemused by how pleased the Slytherins were at the announcement. Zoe and Tristam had taken to giving shouts of encouragement while Sadie dramatically wiped a tear from her eye. Drama queens. All of them. They got even more rowdy when Slughorn was announced.

“ANOTHER SLYTHERIN TO TRIUMPH!” Someone yelled. Draco chuckled. He turned to Harry to give his own thoughts on the matter only to find him laughing at something Ginny said. He blinked. It occurred to him, a bit belatedly, that Harry’s previous romantic interest hadn’t been in the same house as them. 

Well. Ginny was a year below them. It wasn’t like she would be taking up _all_ Harry’s time.

Not that Draco cared about Harry’s time. In fact, it was probably for the best that Harry was distracted by his love life. Draco had other things to worry about this year. He swallowed and turned back to the front of the hall. 

The first few days of classes went by quickly. Slughorn proved to be a perfectly competent teacher much to Draco’s pleasure. He even taught Harry (who Draco had dragged into class along with Neville) so well that his Draught of Living Death was… well, pretty perfect. Draco frowned. Harry had been a decent potioneer (Fleamont’s blood, no doubt… and Draco’s tutoring) but he was never _this_ good. He watched curiously as he crushed some ingredient with the side of his knife. Interesting. 

Harry did so well that he won the Felix Felicis. 

…. _very_ interesting. 

Draco might have pondered more on the matter, but a gold glint had caught his eye as he looked down at his notes. 

_Nine o’ clock. My office._

Draco wondered when Dumbledore might reach out again. He sighed, running his hand over the side of his neck. Harry was already taking lessons with him… wasn’t the man busy enough? He supposed it was only a matter of time before the headmaster asked about his summer.

“Where have you been?” Harry asked a few hours later. He was flipping through his potions textbook, eyes alternating between the pages and Draco.

“I see the map, Harry.” Draco told him warily. Harry glanced down at the Marauder's map halfway stuffed under the cushion of his armchair and winced. 

“I didn't mean to see!” he said hastily, “I just wanted to check something else and I… noticed you were with Montague.” He shrugged with forced nonchalance. Draco nodded. That meant he hadn't seen he had been with Dumbledore at least. “What did he want? Is he joining you with Death Eater stuff too?”

Draco gave him an exasperated smile. Harry was clearly trying so hard to be casual about this. To show that he could handle Draco telling him about this stuff. 

“Yeah, he wanted to know about my summer.” He said and Harry frowned.

“What did you say?”

“I told him most of what happened, ” Draco shrugged, “Well, while making it sounded like I enjoyed myself of course.” He added. Harry nodded, brows coming together slightly. There was a brief pause in which Draco realized a second too late that Harry might not be flattered that Draco had told Montague the details of the previous months while remaining obstinately silent with him. 

To Draco’s defense though, it wasn’t like he didn’t trust Harry with the information. He just… didn’t trust that… you know, he wouldn’t… be… himself. 

Look, Harry would inevitably be there to try and fix whatever he could and offer unrelenting support on the matter. Hell, Draco was pretty sure Harry was the only one who could come close to understanding his summer in Hell. The issue was that Harry was already against him engaging with this Death Eater stuff and would inevitably fight him tooth and nail upon hearing what Draco had done. 

What was even worse was that Harry was quite possibly the only person in the world who could talk him out of it too. 

So, yeah, he couldn’t tell Harry. Wouldn’t. Even if part of him really, really, _really_ wanted to. Plus, there was one thing in particular that he couldn’t tell Harry on principle alone. Sighing, he decided to change the subject and lightly nudged him with his foot. 

“You’re studying? Willingly?” He asked and Harry glanced down at his potions textbook, “You _do_ want to impress Slughorn after all.” He teased. Harry rolled his eyes. 

“Oh, yeah. I think we can be real chums.” He said lightly, tapping a page of the book thoughtfully. Draco noticed he held it slightly closer to his chest at the inquiry. Huh. Draco thought back to their lesson earlier. 

“I mean, it’s showing,” Draco said slowly, “I keep telling you that if you apply yourself you would actually get pretty decent grades. You nailed potions this morning.” He said. Harry laughed. It was nervous. Draco tilted his head. “Are you hiding something?” He asked, quite bluntly.

“What? I get good grades and that’s suspicious?” He asked. Draco stared at him. Yeah, he was definitely hiding something. “And even if I was, you can’t exactly talk.” 

_Oh_ , okay then. It was like that, was it? 

“Damn, Harry. Alright. I’ll mind my business.” He said, holding up his hands. Harry’s face immediately relaxed from the previous defensive expression.

“Sorry,” he said gently and put the book down… well, not down. Away. Draco watched with interest as he put it right next to the map under the chair, clearly guarding both items. He would have to ask Hermione what this was all about. Harry wasn’t protective of too many things. It seemed strange that he would extend it towards this raggedy textbook. “Want to sneak into the muggle studies classroom and watch a movie?” He asked. Draco grinned. He _did_ have a certain fondness for those muggle televisions. Ted had shown him a collection of movies. Hermione was fond of watching documentaries with him. Neville and him had binged Disney movies. Ron always loved watching anything where muggles tried to depict anything magical. 

Harry though? He had gotten him into Star Wars. It was the silliest thing Draco had ever seen with glowing wands, outer space, and rocketships. Draco had already watched the first two with him and knew there was a third they never had a chance to tackle. 

Admittedly, he… did kind of fall into the trap right there with him.

Listen, he just wanted to see how they defeated this Darth Vader bloke, alright? 

“Fine.” He relented and Harry grinned before taking the map the potions book back upstairs and returning his invisibility cloak. “Can we sneak into the kitchens and get food?”

“Obviously,” Harry said, grabbing his hand to haul him up. “You know, there’s a rumor they might make prequels next.” He began chattering and Draco found whatever trepidation had been building up in him immediately melted away.

It came back, of course, the very next day. Draco wasn’t really sure what was going to set him off anymore. During Charms he almost had a full-blown panic attack when a giggling charm reminded him too much of Alecto Carrow’s laughter.

Of course, there were other things that… well, didn’t require much consideration for why they upset him. During their next potions class (in which Harry had once again done suspiciously well in) he nearly threw up when Slughorn had shown them veritaserum. It honestly took all his willpower to control his reaction and get through the class in one piece.

“Are you okay?” Hermione asked and raised a hand to touch his cheek with a frown, “You seem a little pale… paler.” She rectified. Draco scoffed. 

“I’m still fine,” he said as he packed his things away. Her eyes dug into his side. He glanced around. Well… it _was_ just Hermione… “I’m, um,” he started and bit his lip. “Just thinking. About things.” He said… because _that_ was clear. “I don’t like potions as much as I used to.” He finally admitted quietly. 

_“I’d rather not drink that, Bella. We both know what’s in it.”_

_“Oh! Look at you! Not very good at following orders now, are we?”_

He took a long breath. Hermione grimaced. 

“Come with me,” she decided and pulled him out of the classroom. Draco considered objecting but… well, after six years did he really expect that to work? He knew Hermione well enough at this point. He stayed silent until they were at the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

“Are we hunting for Umbridge?” He asked lightly. He was pretty sure she had crawled her way back to the ministry, but it was still fun to think she was out there with the centaurs still. Hermione dropped her bag. 

“No,” she said, “But Sirius says his emotional state as a dog is what helped him through Azkaban. I’ve been doing some research and while animals _do_ have post-traumatic stress it is different enough from humans that-”

“I don’t have PTSD,” Draco snorted. Though as he said the words… he realized that might not be true. He felt hands on him. Whispers on his neck. Pain in his wrists. His back. His chest. Screams echoed somewhere in the back of his mind as he… no. No. He needed to be present. School. Slughorn. Harry had a girlfriend and was oddly good at potions now. “I don’t.” He said anyways. 

“Well, I think it would be helpful for you to turn anyway.” She said, “Did… you transform a lot this summer?” She asked carefully. Draco shook his head. None of the Death Eaters knew he was an animagus. “That’s good! That means whenever you feel like there is too much happening in this form you can go to the other.” She encouraged him. Draco pursed his lips.

“You just want to pet me.”

“I would _never_ … without your permission.” She grinned. Draco shook his head at her fondly before just giving in. She was probably owed something for the amount of stress Draco caused her... though he was a little indignant at her squeal of excitement before she knelt down with pleading eyes. “Can I?” She asked. 

Oh, _whatever_. 

He trotted over to her and Hermione gave a delighted laugh as she rubbed his head.

“You’re so _soft_!” She beamed. Draco lightly nipped at her fingers, “It’s true. Aw, look at you!” She cooed and then paused. “...sorry.” 

Sadly, he was a little used to it. Last year a first-year had attempted to kidnap him and kissed his head at least twenty times before he could escape. He rolled over. She was right at least. Things were… different when he was a fox. Not so human. Simpler in some ways… and his priorities were very different. Like, right now he wanted to chase that rabbit. 

It was actually very important that he chased that rabbit.

The whole rabbit chase ended up taking several hours. When he sniffed out Hermione once again she was by the lake with homework spread out. She grinned when she saw him.

“Welcome back,” she greeted and Draco shifted back into human form, “Feeling better?”

“Yeah, a bit,” he admitted with a yawn and stretched out. “It’ll be helpful to clear my head before tryouts.” He said and rolled over, “I got to impress the new quidditch captain.” He drawled. Hermione rolled her eyes, “You know, I hear Cormac McLaggen is going to try out for keeper.”

“He won’t beat out Ron.” She shrugged. Draco tilted his head at that. He had known Ron was trying out, of course… God, he better make it with Harry at the helm. Though he wasn’t entirely sure what to make of Hermione jumping on that particular line of thinking.

“He fancies you.” Draco decided, testing out the water. She froze. 

“No, he _doesn’t,_ ” She grumbled, though her face flushed. Draco grinned. “If he did he would have said something by now, wouldn’t he?” She said. Aha. 

“I meant McLaggen,” Draco said, “But glad to have the confirmation that our own Ron Weasley has captured your heart-”

“No, he _hasn’t!”_ Hermione gasped and whacked him with a book. Draco laughed louder. “You take that back Draco Malfoy-”

“No, because it’s _true_!” He said, entirely too pleased by the revelation. Of course, Draco had suspected this for _years_ , but now that it was happening… “I bet you two spent _a lot_ of time around one another just missing me this summer, huh? Ron does have nice shoulders to cry on-”

“Oh, you’re _so_ bloody irritating!” Hermione shrieked. Her face was a dark red, “Besides, I’m no worse than you!” She added. Draco’s smile vanished. He didn’t like that. Not at all. “You and Harry are ridiculous-”

“Harry is dating Ginny,” Draco said quickly. Hermione tossed her book to the side to instead gather more materials to make those awful elf clothes she was so fond of. “They’re really good together. Besides, him and I fight too much to ever like each other.” He said, absently tearing at the grass. Hermione scoffed. “ _What?”_

“It’s obvious,” Hermione told him, tongue stuck out in concentration as she tried to sew something resembling a hat together. “You two fight because it’s easier than actually sorting out your feelings for one another.” 

...why did Draco even like talking to her?

“Our _feelings?”_ He repeated and scoffed, “And what is that supposed to mean?” He asked. Hermione raised an eyebrow. “He’s my _friend_ -” 

“Draco, I see your face when he was around Ginny.” 

“Oh, yeah?” Draco said, voice rising slightly, “Well, I’ve seen _your_ face when Ron is around Lavender!” He threw back. Hermione dropped her sewing needle. While Lavender and Ron weren’t going out or anything… she did flirt with him. A lot. Draco even saw her wishing him luck on quidditch tryouts to which Ron had looked far too pleased by. “You fancy Ron!” He added, just be sure they were on the same page and he was admittedly a little overwhelmed. 

“Do not!”

“Do too!” Draco said fiercely, “You do the weird laugh girls do when they like someone.” He told her with a heavy note of accusation. Hermione went an even darker shade of red as she spluttered, “Oh, ha ha ha, you’re so _funny,”_ He mocked. 

“ _I don’t do that!”_ She practically screeched and threw down the hat altogether, “Besides, you get flustered when Harry gets close to you!” She told him, pointing a finger at his nose. “You get all red and nervous and sound like a complete idiot!”

“No, I don’t!” 

“Oh?” Hermione challenged before putting the back of her hand to forehead like a fainting damsel, “I’m Draco and so sad because of my disgraced pureblood heritage and the fact the boy I’ve been crushing on for years is always shouting at me because he wants me to _not_ join the Death Eaters and die.” She said in a dramatically posh voice. Draco gasped. 

“First of all, it hasn’t been _years-”_

“Theodore Nott looks like the Slytherin version of him without glasses!”

“Well, maybe I like Harry because he looks like Theo! Did you think of that? No, because you’re stupid.” Draco snapped back childishly. “And don’t act like you haven’t liked Ron forever! Need I remind you of your Yule Ball argument?” 

“Oh, because _you_ know everything!” Hermione said and then paused. “Wait,” she frowned, “We don’t argue like this… why are we arguing like this? We sound like Ron and Harry trying to get out homework.” She said. Draco reared back. Oh, _God_ no.

“No,” he said, holding up a finger, “We’re smarter than them. We don’t argue… we problem solve.” He said and Hermione gave a quick nod of approval. “So, we like our friends. It’s fine. No big deal.” He said. Hermione gave a shrug as if she too was also nonplussed by the idea. “And maybe they’re interested in other people. How do we handle that?”

“I would like to confirm that you like Harry.” She said and Draco made a face.

“I _might_ like Harry.” He said and Hermione tilted her head, “Okay, but… it’s a sensitive topic.” He grumbled. Hermione frowned, possibly noting the subtle change of demeanor. “You can’t tell _anyone_ .” He added. Hermione nodded immediately. “Right, so… when Bellatrix and some other Death Eaters were… _training_ me they had me drink veritaserum,” he explained, tapping his fingers against the table. Hermione gave a sharp intake. “It’s fine. Veritaserum is like a muggle polygraph. Not very reliable if you know how to beat it. I think they just wanted to scare me.” He sighed, running his hand through his hair, “It, um, worked. I got a little freaked out and tried to talk my way out of it. Bellatrix convinced me otherwise.”

“You mean tortured.” Hermione muttered. Draco shrugged. It was all the same at this point. 

“I finally drank it. Severus and I talked about it, a bit last year, but I never got to practice using it before. It just makes you really, _really_ want to be honest. About everything. So when they ask you something you kind of have to deflect. Like… they asked me if I was loyal to them and I said I was loyal to my family and beliefs. That sort of thing.” He shrugged. 

“That would be really hard to think so quickly… especially when you’re scared.” She said. Draco nodded. He was truly shocked he managed to get away with all he had. “What happened?”

“They asked me about Harry,” he said and then closed his eyes, “I… _planned_ on saying he was my friend. They already knew that. I figured it was better than saying my loyalties lied with him.” He explained and shook his head, taking a deep breath, “But what ended up coming out was… that I, uh, had strong feelings for him.” He mumbled.

“Draco…”

“I’m so stupid. I didn’t even realize it until that moment,” he sighed. Well, maybe part of him had always known, but it was easier to pretend he didn't when the words only existed deep within the depths of his mind. “I’m lucky Bellatrix thought it was a cute little puppy love crush.” He said, rubbing the back of his neck, “She laughed and told me it would go away after he was dead.” He explained. Hermione’s hand tightened on his arm.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. It’s… not like anything can come of it anyways. I just wish I hadn’t realized it like… you know, like _that_. It makes me feel kind of gross around him. Like I tainted something.” He said, rubbing the back of his neck. “And he’s _really_ good with Ginny. Also, he’s straight.” He laughed. Hermione opened her mouth before shutting it real quick.

“That’s… true. That he’s good with Ginny, I mean.” She said and gave him a sad smile. Draco tried to shake it off. No. He was _fine_. More traumatic things had happened. In fact, this little revelation about Harry seemed laughable compared to some of the other things.

And yet… it was what bothered him the most. 

“What is that?” Hermione finally asked and Draco looked down to see he was fiddling with the watch again. Ah. He let it go so it fell against his chest. “You didn’t have that before, did you?” 

“No,” he said and swallowed, “It’s a… well, it’s basically just a connecting charm in a watch,” he explained and Hermione frowned. “You share feelings. It’s actually made for kids who aren’t verbal or who are too shocked to speak, typically. You give it to them and you put your feelings into it and the person who has the other end can feel it.” He explained.

“Who is at the other end of that one?” She asked. Draco smiled. If she didn’t know then he probably shouldn’t say the name.

“A friend,” he said, “They’ve sent me feelings everyday for a while now. Mostly good stuff. Laughter. Happiness. All that,” he shrugged. “Sometimes it's concern, but I think they try to keep it upbeat.” He mused and looked down at the watch fondly. “It was the only reason I didn’t lose my mind sometimes.” 

Hermione nodded. She looked curious, but didn’t press anymore than that. 

“So,” he continued, picking at the grass again, “Our crushes are crushing on other people. How to handle it? We can’t kill them. You probably won’t let me sabotage anything.” He said and Hermione rolled her eyes.

“We find a way to be supportive of their relationships?” She asked. Draco grimaced.

“Okay, so… Slughorn said he would probably have a Christmas party!” He snapped his fingers, “He’s definitely going to get you a Slug Club membership,” he informed her. Slughorn had most definitely doted on Hermione the second he met her. “So, we ask other people. Maybe, we should even ask people who… might make them jealous.” He suggested. “Well, to make Ron jealous. I know you don’t quite agree with the morality-”

“I’m going to invite Cormac McLaggen.” Hermione said without a beat of hesitation. Draco stared. Well then.

“Gross,” he told her, “Perfect choice.” 

Hermione smiled. 

“I’ll invite… I don’t know. Maybe Neville? As a friend, of course.” He added when Hermione tilted her head, “But Harry doesn’t need to know that. I bet if I tell Neville what I’m doing he’ll maybe play along.” He said. Neville was a terrible actor, but Draco always appreciated the effort. “Well, not to make anyone jealous, but… yeah.” He said. Hermione smiled, but said nothing. 

The rest of the day went a bit easier. He should really listen to Hermione more often. She had good ideas when it came to this stuff. He even felt moderately excited for quidditch tryouts. 

“Hey, seeker.” He said, hanging upside down from his broom, “Hear the new quidditch captain is going to be prick about letting you keep your spot.”

Ginny snorted as she threw her broom over her shoulder as she walked over the pitch to poke between his eyes. 

“I can be chaser too, you know.” 

“You’ll always be my seeker.” Draco told her, fluttering his eyelashes dramatically. Ginny pretended to swoon. “A shame. I think you’re better than Harry.” He said. Harry flicked him off as he passed. “Oh, hey, cap.” He greeted.

“Are you here to help or be a nuisance?”

“I’m here to try out,” Draco said and sat up on his broom, “Are you saying I already have the spot? And here I thought nepotism was dead.” He said, clicking his tongue. Harry narrowed his eyes. “Alright, alright. Let me go keep Ron from throwing up.” He said and waved as he moved backwards from the pair to where Ron was staring blankly at the ground in front of him.

“Hi.” He said when Draco flew over, “McLaggen is here.” He added. Draco let his gaze flick towards the rings. Ugh. He was. How unfortunate. 

“And here I was hoping that you were the ugliest thing I would see today,” he said dryly. Ron looked at him with a hint of panic in his eyes. “Joking. McLaggen sucks. You’re definitely going to make it.”

“It’s going to be bloody embarrassing when I can’t even make the team with my best mate as captain,” he muttered. Draco agreed, but he wasn’t going to tell Ron that. He tilted his head. Maybe he could get in a good hex… Ron would probably feel worse if he did that though. As if he couldn’t make it off his own talent. 

“Look, we’ve played together. I know you’re good. You just get out of your own head.”

“Thank you for the diagnosis, Healer Malfoy.”

“Ooh, touchy.” Draco said and shoved him, “Get on your broom, you tosser. I’m getting you a new one for Christmas by the way.” He added thoughtfully. Ron seemed to brighten at that. He was actually riding the one Molly had gotten him after being made a prefect. It still could be upgraded though in Draco’s humble opinion.

“I don’t need another. You got me one in first year, remember?” He said, shaking his head as if to push the thought out of his head entirely. Draco chuckled.

“Good point. I’ll get you a new one only if you make the team then.” He said and when Ron’s smile vanished, sighed. “How are you panicking at this?” He asked, finally landing his broom so he could actually stand in front of him. “You’re one of the smartest people on this pitch-”

“ _What?”_ Ron spluttered. Draco raised a condescending eyebrow. 

“Sorry, I should have been clearer. You’re an idiot,” he rectified and Ron rolled his eyes, “But you’re also one of the best strategists I’ve ever met. Incredibly lazy maybe, but still more practical than… two people whose names both start with H and I will deny saying that if you tell them.” He said, pointing at Ron’s nose. “Especially when it comes to the wizarding world. You’ve got to give yourself more credit.” 

Ron grimaced.

“Just because I’m good at chess-”

“You stole a flying car to save Harry from my best friend Vernon,” Draco interrupted, “Don’t act like it was easy to sneak out under Molly Weasley’s reign,” he pointed out. “You knew Lockhart was a dickhead before everyone else did and managed to get him out of the chamber and to the teachers. Also, you did figure out that Voldemort killed Myrtle even if it was in a sarcastic comment,” he shrugged. Ron opened his mouth. “I could do this all day, Gingerbread.”

“That doesn’t mean anything when it comes to quidditch.”

“You are the _biggest_ quidditch nerd - shut the Hell up!” Draco said and lightly whacked at him with his broom, “You know every play dating back to the first game of quidditch. It’s ridiculous. I know this because once when I was trying to study you explained to me why the Harpies lost the Quidditch World Cup because they chose Barnagan over McCain.” He sighed. Ron shrugged.

“It was a stupid trade.”

“You’re trying out for keeper. That means you see all the players and figure out the best play. If you can’t do that then nobody can. Now stop making me say obvious things to you so I can make fun of your freckles or something.”

“Are my freckles not obvious?”

“I’m done giving you a pep talk.” He grumbled and then paused. There was something else he should probably say. Something he had actually been wanting to say since he got back. Just as he watched Ron turn away, he grabbed his arm back. “This was also pretty clever.” He said and pulled out the chain to show the ticking watch around his neck. Ron’s eyes widened. 

“I didn’t think you actually got it,” he frowned, staring down at Draco’s hand. He reached out to stare down at it. “I mean, I always put something in it just in case...” He trailed off. A lump rose in Draco’s throat. It was a little embarrassing, but he pushed away because… he really was thankful. 

“It… was helpful.” He said slowly, “Thank you.”

Ron looked at him for a moment before nodding. 

“How did you get it to me?” Draco finally asked, tucking it away under his robes, “Did you know where I was? It just… appeared next to Harriet one day.” He said. Ron chuckled.

“I sent it to your mom. I’m guessing she left it for you.” He said. Draco nodded, of course. That made sense. “Where is Harriet by the way?” He asked as more of an afterthought. “I haven’t seen her.” He added. Draco grimaced.

“Recovering.” He grumbled. Ron blinked. Harriet had (as per usual) been with Draco when he was taken. It had been a huge relief when he had finally gotten some time alone and she had slipped out of his sleeve. He hadn't been completely alone. “She… protected me when I slept a lot. Sometimes other Death Eaters would try to sneak up and attack me to gauge my reaction times. She did a good job biting them when they came too close. Eventually they struck back.” He explained. 

It had actually been the first time he used the cruciatus curse. Once he saw Donovan aim his wand at her, he lost his temper pretty quickly. 

“She’ll be okay though?” 

“Eventually,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck, “She’s in my trunk now. Give it a few more months and she should be okay again.” He said. Hopefully. Draco would go back and kill Donovan himself if she didn’t make a full recovery. At least Bellatrix had been impressed. “But we need focus on quidditch.” He said firmly. Ron gave a soft smile.

“Yeah, okay.” He said and picked up his broom, “Wish me luck.”

“Break a leg, Gingerbread.” He grinned. 

In the end, Ron did well enough. He still clearly had some problems getting out of his own head… and Draco was pretty sure Hermione had confounded McLaggen, but in the end Harry was able to choose Ron without a word of protest.

Well, mostly, but Draco staring down McLaggen also helped. It had been a good day. Well, up until Harry decided to be difficult… again. 

“You talked to Severus?” Draco gritted out, folding his arms over his chest. Severus had (after a rather successful DADA lesson) pulled him to the side to inform him that Harry had _told_ on him. Like they were kids. He literally _told on him._

“He-? I thought we were good now!” Harry said, looking betrayed that Severus had ratted him out. As if Draco wasn’t his literal godson. “Draco, look. I just thought that as someone else who is also… you know, doing spy stuff, he should be on the same page.” He explained. 

“Severus already knew I went to Borgin and Burke’s before school.” Draco told him, frustration rising. “He also already knew I’ve been meeting with Montague again. Which reminds me, _stop following me on the map_.” He said, pointing a finger at his chest. “And while we’re on the topic, I don’t appreciate you telling him that I haven’t been doing well.”

“...you haven’t.” Harry muttered, going back to his potions book. Draco looked up at the ceiling. “Besides, I didn’t think it would matter. You like Severus and he’s a spy too so I figured he would know how to help you.”

“If I needed help I would ask for it!” Draco said. Harry sighed and held up his hands in a surrendering position... Draco doubted he was actually convinced. “And why do you _keep reading that?!”_ He asked, frustrated. Harry had never read a book so intently before in his life. He quickly went to grab at it only for Harry to jerk it away quickly. “Wha-?”

“I’m just doing my homework!” 

Yeah, he wasn’t doing his homework. Draco didn’t buy that for a second. Still, he didn’t want to keep going like this. He closed his eyes. Whatever.

“Let’s argue about something else.” He said and Harry paused in clutching his book protectively to blink at him. 

“What?” He asked and tilted his head, “Argue about what?” He asked warily. “I don’t want to argue with you, Draco.” He sighed.

“Yeah, but we’re going to. Either about you being weird about that book or me.” He said and shrugged, “So let’s pick something that won’t be as… tense.” He suggested. Harry didn’t look sure as he looked him over carefully. “What’s your favorite color?” He finally asked. Harry frowned.

“Um, I don’t know. Probably red?”

“ _Fuck_ red. Maroon is so much better.” 

“Ma - that’s _red_ , you tosser!” 

“No, it’s completely different.”

“It is just a different shade of red! They’re the same!”

“If it’s the same then why did they give it a different name?” 

“What’s your favorite color then?” Harry demanded, looking somewhere torn between outraged and amused. Draco considered.

“Either maroon or like… spring green, I guess.” 

“Fuck spring green.”

“I’m going to fight you.” 

* * *

The color fight was a pretty good way to postpone whatever they really needed to fight about. However, it really only delayed the inevitable. It was a few days later when the other shoe dropped. Harry had been strangely morose lately. He hadn’t even eaten Ginny’s face off in what felt like _days_. Draco knew this because he had the unfortunate habit of always walking in on them. It was truly a nightmare. His only reprieve was when Ron had walked in on them once and then spent a solid hour screaming about it and banned Ginny from the boys’ dormitory. Then, because he liked to abuse his prefect powers, he gave them both detention, which Draco found _endlessly_ funny.

Ron didn’t really think it through though. Rumor had it that they made out during detention so… that backfired. Harry at least made it up to him by apologizing a million times and buying him a solid three pounds of chocolate.

Anyways, Ginny wasn’t around for some reason and Harry was being… weird.

“You’re in a strange mood,” Draco said as he stuffed his face with treacle tart. Harry didn’t answer him. “Hello? Captain Potter? My glorious chosen one? The-Boy-Who-Won’t-Die?” He said impatiently and snapped in front of him. Harry shoved his hand down. “What’s happening to you?”

“Ginny and I broke up last week.”

Wait. Draco blinked. That had felt rather quick. Granted, they _had_ been dating all summer… so, like, five months in total? It wasn’t the shortest relationship, but he had honestly expected it to go on much, much longer. Especially since Harry seemed to really like Ginny. Draco might be secretly dying inside at the pair of them together, but he could at least acknowledge that nobody made Harry smile at much as Ginny did… well, maybe Draco could, but that was only because Harry seemed secretly amused when other people got hexed (something both Draco and Ginny excelled in). 

“Why?” He asked and Harry played with his food absently. 

“I guess… maybe broken up isn’t the right word,” he sighed, “I just… I keep getting caught up on other things. Voldemort. Dumbledore’s lessons. Things about myself. You.” He said. Draco tensed. The ‘things about myself’ should have caught his attention, but admittedly the ‘you’ already had him on edge.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“We just thought it would be better to give it another go when there’s less to...you know. Figure out and fix-”

“To _fix?”_ Draco repeated, feeling a sharp wave of defensiveness fall over him. Harry winced. “Sorry to have been a damper on your relationship.” He said coldly and dropped the treacle tart he was eating back onto the plate. He wasn’t hungry anyways. 

“I didn’t mean it like that, Draco.” He said softly, “I’m a mess too-”

“I’m not a _mess_.” Draco gritted out, “You are the one following me on that damned map of yours!” He spit out. “Don’t think I don’t notice. Always watching me. You’re my friend, not my _parent-_ ”

“Don’t freak out because you’ve been held captive? Don’t freak out that you’re trying to go _back_ to the people who held you hostage? How am I the one in the wrong here?” Harry asked. It was asked calmly, but Draco could already sense his irritation rising. “I’m not trying to blame you! I’m just saying I would rather focus on _helping_ you than dating.”

“I don’t _need_ your help,” Draco spat at him and stood up. Harry closed his eyes and took a long breath. It infuriated Draco even more. “And I certainly didn’t ask for it. In fact, it would be easier for me if you just stayed out of it.” He tacked on. Harry gave a cold laugh.

“Stayed out of it? I know you’ve been visiting Dumbledore again-”

“So are you!” Draco hissed back and leaned down to point at his chest, “Besides, you’ve always worshiped the ground he’s walked on-”

“Yeah, but if I remember correctly the last time you got chummy with him you turned into an illegal animagus and ended up getting kidnapped!” Harry whispered back fiercely. Draco clenched his hands into fists by his sides. “Forgive me for being worried at your recklessness-”

“Are you kidding me?!” Draco shouted loud enough that the students sitting at the other end of the table went quiet, “You want to lecture _me_ on recklessness? Who convinced us to go get the sorcerer’s stone instead of telling an actual adult? Who drove a flying car to school? Who led us to go after Ginny in the chamber? Who tried to hunt down Sirius Black after hearing that he killed thirteen people? Who was the one who _convinced us to go to the ministry in the first place?!”_ He yelled. His heart was thudding in his ears, the pounding not allowing him to digest the overwhelming silence that fell over the Great Hall. 

Harry went worryingly still. That didn’t register for Draco either. Whatever emotion that had been firmly locked and hidden over the past few months felt as though it was exploding out.

“You just want to make me sound like the idiot doing the wrong thing because it is easier to do that than admit you were the one who got me captured in the first place! If you had just _once_ done what you were supposed to do then we would have never left Hogwarts that night and I wouldn’t-” he began and his voice caught at the end, falling away. It was then that he was able to completely comprehend exactly what he had said and who he had said it to. 

Needless to say… he had fucked up. 

There was a second of silence in which he could only register the devastated expression on Harry’s face before he silently got up and walked away. Draco stood there - momentarily shocked by his own words. 

“I - wait, Harry-” He called, following him out of the hall and into one of the empty corridors. “ _Harry-”_

“You don’t think I know that?” He said, voice cracking at the end as he spun around. Draco inwardly sighed. “I spent _months_ hating myself for it. I thought they would kill you!” He said and shook out his hands to keep them from trembling. “I already have to deal with the fact my parents died protecting me. That I couldn’t save Cedric. That -” He began and cut himself off, looking away. “I couldn’t handle it being my fault. I didn’t. I _didn’t_.” He repeated. “I can’t even handle it being my fault when you wake up screaming or see those scars that I _still_ don’t know how you got or-”

“I’m sorry,” Draco cut him off. “I know. I just lost my temper. I didn’t mean any of that - and you’re right. Most of what happened was on me anyways. I wanted to get involved and… I did. That wasn’t you. I lured Bellatrix away on purpose to prove I could handle it.” He said. Harry looked at the ground. “You thought Sirius was in danger. Nobody could fault you-”

“Could you?” Harry interrupted. Draco paused. “Could you handle it?” He clarified, “Being a Death Eater? All the stuff they did to you? I don’t even _know_ half of it because you won’t tell me.” He said, gesturing around wildly. Draco glanced around nervously. Nobody was around, but there were still paintings and ghosts and - “Why can’t you just _stay?”_ Harry asked, suddenly grabbing his arms so Draco would meet his eyes. “If we’re going to be in danger why can’t we at least do it together? We’ve always done it together,” He pointed out. “The stone, the basilisk, Sirius - we all managed to get out okay when it was all of us.” Harry said. Draco swallowed, “But the tournament? The graveyard? That’s when people started getting hurt. If I had been with you when you followed Bellatrix-”

“You know it doesn’t work like that.” 

“We can’t protect each other if you’re not there!” Harry said impatiently. “The things Dumbledore is teaching me… we can do it together. You don’t need to be their spy. We can defeat him some other way-”

“You mean the horcruxes?” Draco asked quietly. Harry paused. “Yeah, Dumbledore already told me. Harry, how do you expect to find them all? That’s my role in this. To figure out where they are for you. I can’t do that without being close to Voldemort, okay?” He said. “I can’t stay-”

“Can’t or won’t?” Harry interrupted, “Why can’t you just let me-” he began and cut himself off. He looked so frustrated… Draco wanted to help, but what was he supposed to do? Back out? “Draco, _please_.” 

...damnit. He was going to cave. He couldn't stand Harry looking at him like that. Draco tried to look at anything else, but he could still feel Harry's hands on his arm, squeezing tightly.

“I know I’m upsetting you,” he finally said and risked a glance up, “I’m sorry. I… I’m doing my best.” 

Harry closed his eyes. Draco waited for a response, but Harry didn’t seem interested in giving one. Hesitantly, he reached out and grabbed one of his hands. Harry didn’t back away. 

“I’ll see you later,” He finally sighed and shook him off. He glanced over Draco’s shoulder. “Hi,” He added with a small wave. Draco turned to find Sadie and Zoe walking over curiously. When Draco turned back, Harry was gone. 

“Is everything alright?” Zoe asked, curiously glancing over. She looked... well, she looked... different... Today was a lucky day for her. Usually, all her good luck would have her glowing with happiness. However, her usual giddiness somehow seemed dampened. Even her hair seemed a bit dimmer than usual. He frowned at her before nodding. It was a lie, but whatever. Sadie pursed her lips for a moment. Then she looked around.

“Want to skip class and drink firewhiskey?” She asked. Zoe glanced over and snorted at her. “What? He looks like he needs it. You can bring Weasley too. Not Granger though. As cute as she is, she’ll definitely tell on us.” Sadie grumbled. Zoe chuckled, though it seemed forced. Had Draco spoken with her since he'd been back? He didn't think so. Maybe it was Theo?

“You realize Ron and Lavender are probably going to date, right?” Zoe asked Sadie tiredly. There was still a note of amusement underneath whatever exhaustion was plaguing her.

“...well they aren’t right _now,_ ” Sadie grumbled and then looked Draco over, “Are you _sure_ you aren’t straight?” She asked. Draco gave her a small smile and nodded. “Fine. Still bring Weasley though. I can at least flirt with you for fun.” She mused. Draco laughed. Apparently this wasn’t so much of an invitation and more an order.

“Can Neville come?” He asked. Draco was fairly sure Neville never had firewhiskey before and Draco very much wanted to ensure he was there when he finally tried it. Sadie brightened.

“Longbottom! Yes! Bring him!” She beamed, “I like hearing him say fancy herbology terms.” She added. Zoe just shook her head.

“You’re so weird,” she said and then glanced at Draco again, "Um, maybe you go ahead, Sadie. I need to talk to Draco for a second." She said. Sadie's eyes flicked her over before giving a small nod and patting the side of her arm. Draco waited until she rounded the corner before turning back to Zoe.

"Are you okay-?" 

"I am so, so, _so_ sorry!" Zoe cut him off, voice wavering. He blinked at her. What? Why? Draco tried to think of anything she might have done, but came up blank as he watched her wring her hands together, barely holding back tears, "I should have never come with you that night. I didn't... I didn't think about me affecting other people and I should have and-"

"Zoe, what on Earth are you talking about?" He asked. She just looked at him and suddenly something in the back of his mind clicked, "Oh - _Zoe,_ Merlin, that is not your fault." He said, a bit horrified, "I got captured because I'm arrogant and stubborn."

"Or because I insisted on fighting when I knew I had bad luck," she whispered, taking a long breath, "I should have considered I would be a detriment to everyone."

"Everyone survived. We won that battle." Draco reminded her, "I really don't think your luck had anything to do with it," he said gently. Zoe only shrugged, eyes pinned on the ground. Draco grimaced. Obviously, he had faced the consequences of his meddling last year firsthand. However, it still felt like he was forever finding more around every corner. He had hurt so many people and -

No. Stop. He couldn't devolve like that. Not now.

"I'm sorry." Zoe said again. Draco sighed.

"Even if it was true - which I don't think it is - but if it was... It might have just be the universe evening things out. Did they tell you what I did last year?" He asked. Zoe opened her mouth before snapping it back shut. Draco wasn't sure how much anyone told her. Dumbledore was the one person who knew everything and he was notoriously tight-lipped. "Come on," he finally said, "You might need firewhiskey more than me."

In the end, missing a period had been great fun. Hermione ended up catching them though because the second Draco, Ron, _and_ Neville missed charms she bullied Harry into giving over the Marauders' map and busted them. Harry seemed semi-amused upon finding them all huddled up in the Room of Requirement playing ‘Never Have I Ever’ while Neville loudly tried to explain fluxweed. He at least seemed to not still be upset over their tiff this morning. 

“...am so disappointed in you!” Hermione was seething. Ginny also popped in to announce she was disappointed (at not receiving an invite) before stealing Harry away and disappearing once more. 

“Is she okay?” Draco had asked Ron with a jerk of his head towards the portrait hole. “With her and Harry being done?” He clarified. Ron frowned.

“I think so,” he shook his head, “They’ll probably get back together. I think they both just need to figure stuff out. She mentioned that she and Harry had been talking about something and she wanted to test something out?” He added, “So, I guess they’re still friends.”

“That’s…good.” Draco said, trying to decipher that sentence. He looked at Hermione. She only shrugged before flipping a few more pages of her book. Hm. He supposed it wasn’t any of his business. In fact, he needed Ginny to distract him more. It might help with the tension between Harry at Draco... Well, maybe Draco’s night would be getting a bit easier without worrying about walking in on any makeout sessions. At least, that’s what he thought until the doors burst open.

“I’ve had a threesome.” Harry declared. 

Nevermind. 

Draco spat out his pumpkin juice as Hermione very slowly looked up from her book to stare at Harry for about ten seconds. Ron was the only one who seemed nonplussed by the statement and raised his hand for a high five. Was that what Ron meant when he said ‘test something out’?

“With who?” He asked and Draco shook his head. 

“Nope,” he said and pointed at Harry, “No, no. Define ‘threesome’ for me immediately.” He said. Harry lifted an eyebrow - as if the idea of Draco not knowing the term was humorous. In reality, Draco was pretty sure he wasn’t the stupid one here.

“It’s when you’ve kissed three different people,” Harry said solemnly. Draco leaned back into his chair. Yep. That sounded about right to him. Hermione visibly relaxed. Not that they would have judged him but… well, it was quite a leap from someone who wasn’t sure how to kiss last year. “I kissed Cho, then Ginny, and now Michael Corner.” He said. Draco spat the second sip of pumpkin juice he had taken out again.

“ _Harry,”_ Ron groaned, “You kissed the same guy my sister went out with?” He asked, sounding disgusted. Harry shrugged. “ _After you recently decided to stop kissing my sister?”_

“She was the one who recommended him.”

“Ah! No!” Ron said and held his hands up, “Stop that. Immediately.” He grumbled, wrinkling his nose. “Why did she even-?” He began and shook his head again. Harry sat by the fire and considered.

“Well, apparently I notice when blokes look nice,” Harry said slowly, “And Ginny says most guys don’t?”

“Untrue,” Ron frowned at him, “I notice when someone is _attractive_.” He reasoned. Hermione cleared her throat. 

“Well, wait. Harry, how would you describe a boy you thought was attractive?” She asked. “Like, I don’t… know. Oliver Wood?” She suggested. Ron turned to her, possibly betrayed by the fact she considered Wood attractive. Harry tilted his head.

“Um,” he said, a bit uncomfortably, “I don’t know. Really fit. Chiseled face. Pretty eyes and tall - not, like, _very_ tall, but still tall with… er, soft hair. Very shiny. It looks like silk.” He decided. Ron frowned. 

“Oh. Well. I don’t describe blokes like that.” He said and Harry threw up his hands, “So Ginny suggested you should go have a snog with her ex-boyfriend?” He said. Harry opened his mouth - possibly to defend himself - but then snapped it back shut and gave a small nod. 

Silence. 

“Well?” Draco finally asked, “How was it?” 

“It was _the same!”_ Harry groaned and flopped onto his back. “I mean, no it wasn’t. I don’t know. There were _some_ differences, but I think I liked it the same. I mean, he was bigger, I guess. His face was kind of scratchy.” He told the ceiling. Hermione frowned.

“So you… didn’t like kissing either?”

“No!” Harry shouted, visibly distressed, “I liked both!” 

“...why are you upset about this?” Ron frowned, and turned to them. “That’s… twice as many people to snog, right? That’s a good thing, mate.” He said and clapped his knee. Harry made a sad sniffling noise. 

“But I’m already really bad at dating.” He said, sounding absolutely distraught. “Now I get to be bad at dating boys too?” He asked and sighed. “Hermione, do you know anything about dating boys?” He asked and then waved the question away. “Nevermind, I bet it isn’t the same.” He grumbled. Draco scowled.

“Okay, then. Fuck you.” He said and Harry shot up. 

“You’re gay!” He said as if just remembering this fact. Draco raised an eyebrow. “Sorry, I got so stressed about everything and forgot.” He said. Ron snorted. 

“How could you forget? He’s kind of a slut-”

“ _Ronald!”_ Hermione gasped and Draco turned to look at him. 

“What? No offense, but after Theo you went through _quite_ a few.” Ron said and held up his hands, “Not judging you. I would too if I had been freed from the pureblood marriage system. Have fun. Go wild. I’m just saying-”

“Who do you think I’ve gone out with?” Draco asked, not sure if he was upset or pleased by this development. Ron considered before ticking off names on his fingers.

“Theo, obviously. Zacharias Smith, Lee Jordan, Anthony Goldstein, Terry Boot, Tristam-”

“Now you’re just naming DA members!” Draco argued, “I didn’t even date some of those people.” He said. Ron stopped to look at him. “And I certainly didn’t sleep with them.” he added with a sniff. Ron continued staring.

“Fine, but did you snog them?”

Draco stared back.

“So are you dating Michael Corner then?” He asked, turning back to Harry. Ron gave a slight ‘so-there’ gesture, but Draco resolutely ignored him. Harry smiled a bit, but refocused fairly quickly as he shook his head. “Why not? 

“...Ginny dated him.” Harry said with a grimace. Draco turned to look at Hermione. Did she hear what he did? How did she not lose her mind? Giving a slightly amused scoff, she shut her book and fixed them all with an equally exasperated look, which wasn’t fair because Draco wasn’t exasperating. Why was he being lumped in with these two? 

“Alright,” Draco sighed. Hermione had gotten up and patted his shoulder as she passed to get to her dormitory. That meant Draco was left as babysitter apparently. “First of all, congratulations.” He said, turning to Harry, “I’m happy you discovered this about yourself. However, and this is very important to me, as a bi person please, please, _please_ don’t go around saying you had a threesome. People will get the wrong idea very quickly.”

“What? But I-”

“No. No, you didn’t. That doesn’t mean what you think it does.” Draco told him. “Normally, I find your obliviousness endearing, but this one is stressing me out. Not that you can’t have a threesome. That’s all you, but…” He held up his hands, “Maybe head to the library for that one.” He said. 

Forget Voldemort. Harry was the source for ninety percent of Draco's stress.

* * *

“Draco… please, please don’t do this-”

The world seemed oddly still. Cold. As if someone had put everything but this moment on pause. Draco had been scared plenty of times in his life. Fear was nothing new to him, but right now he was pretty sure he was past scared and more towards downright terrified.

“For Christ's sake,” Yaxley muttered from somewhere behind him, “Do it, Malfoy. I’ve had enough of babying you-”

“Shut your mouth,” Bellatrix’s voice snapped and a hand fell on his arm. “Draco, sweetheart, it’s okay.” She told him comfortingly. “You’ve done _so_ well so far,” She reassured him. Draco nodded. His fingers felt numb. There was blood on the floor. On his hands. 

“I… I thought you said he didn’t have to die,” Draco said. He thought he had time. He had time to help him escape. He had been planning to help him escape. “Bellatrix-”

“If he can’t tell us where the traitor is then he’s of no use to us.” Bellatrix said. Draco’s heart sped up. He looked back at the man in front of him. “I know you have an attachment, but he will be a problem.” 

“I don’t think he knows,” Draco said and shook his head. He was _certain_ he didn’t know. Draco couldn’t kill him. Not for this. Not for something that wasn’t even his fault. It was Draco’s fault. He couldn’t let him die over something _Draco_ had done. “He could be an ally.”

“Maybe,” Yaxley said and shoved Draco to the side, “But we don’t have orders to find an ally. We have orders to torture and kill someone.” He said coldly. Draco felt his throat squeeze tighter. No. No, he had to do something. “Bellatrix, if your nephew can’t even kill-”

“He killed Amelia Bones!” Bellatrix snapped and the name sent a shiver down his spine. “He was raised to be docile, you idiot. Give him a moment.” She seethed and squeezed Draco’s arm tighter. “He can do it. Right, Draco?” She asked. 

He couldn’t. He couldn’t, he couldn’t, he _couldn’t_ -

“I think this is a mistake,” he said, lowering his wand and turning to meet Yaxley’s eyes. “I know what the Dark Lord requested, but I don’t think we should do something that can’t be undone before he has all the facts.”

“Which are?”

“That he doesn’t _know_ where Theodore Nott is!” Draco snapped out. Bellatrix sighed. “I’ve seen into his mind. We’ve tortured him. He clearly doesn’t know!” He said sharply… because Draco knew. Draco knew where Theo was. He knew how he got there because he had _known_ the Death Eaters would come for him. He had been right. 

He just hadn’t anticipated this. 

“Then we kill him.” Yaxley said and Draco clenched his jaw. 

“No-” A voice cracked in front of them, “I wish to serve the Dark Lord as my family as done. We have all been loyal servants. It isn’t my fault Theo has run,” he said and Draco looked at him helplessly. “I can help you _find_ him if you just let me!” He added, a bit desperately. 

“Those aren’t our orders, Winnie.” Bellatrix told him with feigned disappointment. “If you can’t tell us where your brother is-”

“We should at least have him appeal to the Dark Lord,” Draco interrupted, “Winston could be a fine addition to the other Death Eaters. Perhaps, if Theo really has turned, Winston would be able to get information from him. They’re brothers. I’m sure he has Theo’s trust-”

“Isn’t that what you’re for, little lion?” Yaxley said and raised his wand to Draco’s nose, “I don’t see much courage in you. Another Pettigrew, probably.” He spat. “Whimpering and crying instead of doing what must be done to create our lord’s vision of the world.” He sneered. 

“I want our lord to have all he needs at his disposal!” Draco growled, “If you would just-” He started, but was cut off by Yaxley pressing his wand into his chest. He barely had time to notice Yaxley’s lips move until he was thrown back onto the floor with a gasp, his bones melting and fire burning him from the inside. He might have screamed, but his ears weren’t able to register noise as he choked. The pain rose and then dissipated altogether. 

“ _You_ ,” Bellatrix seethed and when Draco looked up he saw Yaxley’s wand was on the ground with his aunt pressing a knife into his hand. “Do not touch _my_ blood. If he is to be punished it will be my hand or the Dark Lord’s!” She hissed and pressed the knife further into his hand so it went into the wood of the table beside him. “Do you understand me?” She whispered. 

Yaxley nodded and Bellatrix ripped the knife out. 

“Draco?” She asked and he shakily got up and picked up his fallen wand. “Enough of this. Kill him.” She said and Draco looked back at where Winston was trembling in front of them. “Now!” She shouted, making him jump. Draco swallowed. “I can assure you my ire will include more than a simple cruciatus.” She warned, “I brought you to the Dark Lord. I vouched for you. You are of my blood.” She said and stepped towards him. “You will _not_ fail me.” 

Draco looked in front of him.

“Draco…” Winston whispered softly. Draco looked back at Bellatrix. 

“No.” He said, “Because I don’t believe this is in the Dark Lord’s interest.” He said coldly and raised his wand, turning it on Yaxley. “ _You_ however,” he said stepping forward, “Have proven yourself to be ineffective and disloyal. You didn’t even look for him when he disappeared.” He said coldly. Yaxley chuckled. 

“Oh, playing tough, hm? Punish it for me then, little lion. I doubt you could truly even strike me.” He cooed. Draco pursed his lips. Bellatrix was watching him carefully. 

Fine. 

“ _Avada Kedavra!”_ He said and Yaxley crumbled to the ground as the room filled with a blinding green light. He lowered his arm, turning slowly to Bellatrix. She pursed her lips. “Winston Nott will serve as I will. It is time we dismiss the older Death Eaters who have failed him to make room for new, loyal blood.” He told her. 

Silence followed.

“Very well,” Bellatrix said, “We will see if the Dark Lord agrees with that assessment, Draco. If he doesn’t… you will pay the price.” She said, and dropped her knife so it clattered to the ground. “And I will not protect you from his wrath.” 

Draco shot up in bed. He was drenched in sweat, shaking. Wildly, he reached for the watch around his neck only to notice he wasn’t alone. Frowning, he looked down to see his bed had magically expanded to accommodate a small group. 

“Wha-?” He began, frowning. Hermione was on his right side, curled up slightly against where Ron was also sleeping with light snores on her other side. He turned to find Harry a bit closer to him, hand absently pressed against his arm. There was a slight chuckle from the other side of the room.

“Is this the first you’ve caught them?” Neville asked from where he was reading under the light of his wand in his own bed. Draco stared. “They always join you when Harry says you’re having a nightmare. Hermione usually wakes everyone up before you get up in the morning.” He said. Draco stared down numbly.

“Why?” He asked. Neville smiled.

“You tend to calm down when they’re with you. Even if you don’t realize it.” He shrugged, “It’s easier than trying to wake you up every time, I suspect.” He explained. Draco closed his eyes. From beside him, Harry shifted slightly, hand tiredly reaching out. Draco reached down to touch his hand and immediately he stopped moving to fall back into whatever deep sleep he had been pulled from. “I can make them stop if you don’t like it.” Neville added, hesitantly. 

“No,” Draco said quietly and sighed, “That’s… that’s okay.” He murmured and slowly laid back down. He stared at the ceiling, trying to keep any emotion from rushing too quickly to the surface. “Goodnight, Neville.” He called. There was the turning of a page. 

“‘Night, Draco.” He said and when Draco went to lay back down, felt Harry move in slightly closer to him. He froze. Oh no. Oh God. This wasn't good. This was a precarious situation. Draco couldn't sleep like this when... you know, he was _right there_.

It wasn't weird, right? No. No, it was... just friendly. Totally friendly. It was only weird if Draco was the one trying cuddle up against him. If he just went perfectly still and didn't move-

"Shh," Harry grumbled and Draco had no idea if he was actually awake or not. Had he somehow heard Draco's internal crisis? "Stop. Sleep." He murmured and then yawned, practically rolling on top of him as he did so. Draco inwardly screamed. He knew Harry Potter would one day kill him. Granted, he never thought it would be like this but...

Oh, _whatever_. Draco let himself accept the fact they were practically intertwined and fell back asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If y'all want a sneak peak into next chapter then[ this is all you need to know.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qgET1Zhpb8%E2%80%9D>this%20is%20all%20you%20need%20to%20know.</a>%0A<a%20href=)


	14. Year Six (In Which Christmas is Ruined and Saved)

"Draco, Draco, Draco..."

You know, Draco had always liked his name... up until this moment at least.

"I can fix it," he started, raising his hands, "I understand how it looks. I know I messed up-"

"I told you before," Bellatrix told him coolly as she flicked her wand. The walls around them groaned and the fireplace in front of them flickered to life. Draco ignored it, "I offered you my advice. If you cannot take it then the consequences are yours and yours alone." She told him and stepped closer to the fire, warming her hands, "Lucius has somehow still infected you. He's always been a bit..." She waved her hand, "Unfocused. His priorities waver."

"Bella, please," Draco tried again, "I can make it right. I just need-"

"If you keep prodding me about this then I'll personally find a way to make sure you mind your tongue in the future," she warned and lifted her wand so it touched Draco's lips, "Maybe a muzzle. How would we like that?" She asked, raising an eyebrow. Draco clenched his jaw. Part of him wanted to drop it. It was done. Over.

And yet...

"Punish me however you’d like. I accept it."

"Good."

"But at least let me fix things first."

Bellatrix sighed, lowering her wand before giving a high-pitched scream. Draco didn't know why. Sometimes she just did that. It wasn't a particularly good indicator of whether she was going to side with him or go against him. The sound echoed around the room they were currently stowed away in. Draco waited.

"No."

For fuck's sake.

"Bella-"

"Are all Gryffindors as argumentative as you?" A voice asked and Draco froze. Shit. He turned towards the doorway to find a pair of red eyes staring back at him, glowing in the dim light. Bellatrix immediately dropped her wand, falling to her knees in deference as she muttered pleasantries. Draco did not follow suit. Not today. Voldemort tilted his head - a dangerous spark touching his expression.

"Pettigrew seems obedient enough," Draco answered and bowed his head so he wasn't completely condemning himself to dying a slow and painful death, "My lord, I need to discuss what happened," he said and Bellatrix chuckled darkly under her breath, "The fault was entirely mine. I can fix it. Just give me a few minutes and I can assure you it will never happen again."

"Oh?" Voldemort asked and took a step towards him. The air around him seemed to zap of life, leaving Draco a little breathless at the approach. His mind went dizzy before snapping back into focus. Voldemort's lips curled. From behind him, there was a loud thud outside the door. Draco jumped at the sound of it, eyes flicking to door warily before refocusing,"You can... fix it..." He repeated and gave a low chuckle, "You killed one of my Death Eaters, Draco Malfoy."

"He was not worthy of you."

"Hm," Voldemort said and took another step. There was another bang - louder this time. "I see. I'm afraid that you'll find most of my followers are not worthy of me. Your father included," he said, meeting Draco's eyes. He didn't answer. "I have hopes for you. Bellatrix has proven herself well over the years. I do wish to instill the same virtues in you." He said. Draco nodded.

"I do hope to emulate her where I can."

"Well, you did ignore her orders," he said and Draco inwardly felt a spike of panic, "You didn't kill the Nott boy. Now, look." He said gesturing around, "Look at the mess you've created for me. For assuming you knew _better_ ," he said with a sigh and from the ground, Draco could see Nagini sliding into the room, eyes alert as he she seemingly appeared from nowhere, "If you were anyone else... you would be dead already." He said.

Draco had to fight not to cringe at that.

"Let me make it right, my lord." He tried again. Voldemort chuckled.

"You do have spirit, I'll give you that," he said coolly and shook his head. The banging outside the door was growing more insistent. Was he the only one that could hear it? The sound was thudding - almost like a heart beat. There was a rhythm to it that he found way too distracting. "I will not accept a failure like this again, do you understand?" He asked.

Draco wasn't sure how, but... was he getting away with this somehow? No way he got out of this unscathed.

"Yes, master," he said, using Bellatrix's term of choice, "I won't fail you again. I just want to make sure Winston-"

"You needn’t worry about him anymore. I have other plans for you. I think it will be an... illuminating lesson." He said and Draco opened his mouth - he wanted to ask more about the part of this he actually cared about, but was silenced by a finger. Voldemort walked back to the door. "I hope we won't have to repeat this lesson, Draco. You show promise." He said simply and with a click the door opened.

" _No-"_ Draco shot up. Where was the watch? Where was it? _Where was it?_ He mindlessly reached around - trying and failing to grab at something with a bit of desperation as he tried to remember how to breath. It hurt. It hurt, it hurt, it _hurt-_

"Draco, hey. Hey, it's fine." Someone said and without thinking he flinched away. "Shi - I'm sorry. I'm over here now, okay?" The person said and Draco blinked a few times. He knew that voice. It was... he knew that voice.

"Harry?" He asked and tried to gauge where he was. They were outside. He could feel the sun trickling against his face, blinding him slightly as he started to make out a tree and - right. They had been studying. Draco must have fallen asleep. He turned to see Harry a few feet away. He looked somewhere between concerned and nervous. "I'm fine." Draco muttered and sat up, "You... you don't have to be over there." He said.

Harry didn't need to be told twice. Within seconds he was next to him, pulling out a rather impressive assortment of calming droughts out of his bag and sliding them towards Draco.

"Oh," Draco blinked a few times and picked up one, "Thanks. Sorry, about that," he added and rubbed the sleep from his eyes, "Do you mind if I, uh, spend some time as my animagus? It helps me calm down." He said and Harry nodded quickly.

"Yeah, sure," he said and absently brushed his hand over Draco's cheek. He felt himself go bright red, "Do you need to talk?" He asked and Draco shook his head. "Come on, Draco. It's not healthy to keep it to yourself." He said. Draco groaned and collapsed to the ground. "Hermione is going to give you detention if you don't start telling us stuff."

"No, she won't."

"...she could," he grumbled and then shook his head, "Fine. Be stubborn." He said and then bit his lip as he grabbed that God forsaken potions book. Draco hesitated.

"You know about Amelia Bones, right?" He asked. Harry froze before nodding. "And you know there... there were other things I did?" He asked. Harry nodded again. "And that there were other things I really, really, really messed up on?" He asked. He hadn't said anything about that. Not about that. Not to anyone. Still, Harry nodded all the same. Draco stared at him. "I don't get it."

"That's a first." Harry said and closed the book. Draco scowled at him in return.

"How can you not be more upset by that?"

"I am upset by that."

"Yeah, but not at _me,"_ Draco said, frustrated as he sat up, "You're upset at my parents and Bellatrix and Voldemort, but... you just seem _frustrated_ with me. I killed someone. I mean, look at Susan Bones!" He said, thinking back to how distraught the girl had been at the beginning of the year, "How are you not angry at me? You just... you're just accepting it?" He asked, feeling tears pricking behind his eyes. He wasn't even sure why.

Harry dropped the book altogether. It fell beside him with a thump.

"I..." He began and then pursed his lips, "I don't know. Because it's _you,"_ he said, brows furrowing together, "I don't know how to explain it. When it comes to most people, I just kind of worry about everyone. I saved Gabrielle because nobody else was there to. I saved Ginny because she needed to be saved. Same thing with Sirius. Even before I have an attachment to people I kind of just... do it. But with you..." He trailed for a moment. Draco waited, "I don't know. That stuff always just matters less when it comes to you. It feels like-" he began and cut himself off, "I don't know. You're just different. Everything about you is just... different," He said, eyes falling away. Draco stared. Everything about Harry was different for him too, "Besides, you didn't want to do those things." Harry tacked on.

Draco wasn't sure that mattered. He fell back into the grass.

"Thank you," he finally said and Harry shrugged, picking absently at the dirt. "I'm going to, um, go transform now." He murmured and rolled over. Harry simply picked up the potions book again.

Maybe the conversation they just had would make more sense when he was a fox.

* * *

According to Hermione, Harry’s fascination with his potions book was because of its previous owner who had kindly put a bunch of useful tricks and tips in there. Draco had to laugh at the revelation. Honestly, Harry was kind of a Slytherin in some ways. He never passed up an opportunity, did he? Hermione was far less amused by the whole ordeal.

On a more concerning note, Hagrid was a mess… again.

“I’m sorry about Aragog,” Ron said consolingly. Draco nodded even though he was far from upset by the information. Draco held plenty of grudges and the fact the demon-spider had nearly killed them for no goddamn reason felt like a good enough reason to continue with this one. Ron didn’t seem too distraught either. “I’m, um, sure he’s lived a good life.” 

Hagrid wailed. 

“There, there,” Draco a little uncertainly as he patted his back. He gave a look towards Harry who gave an encouraging nod. “It’s… okay? I mean, he’s not dead yet. Maybe he’ll, uh, fight through it,” He tried. Ron turned his snort into a cough. 

“I’m sorry, Hagrid.” Hermione began just as Draco caught a flash of gold on the table. He moved over to look down at one of Hagrid’s lesson plans to notice loopy writing glittering back at him before disappearing again. Dumbledore. He leaned over to Ron.

“I have to go. You got this?” He asked. Ron gave him a wary look, but nodded.

“Harry’s going to follow you,” he warned. Draco rolled his eyes and nodded. He knew.

Sure enough, Harry exited Hagrid’s hut after giving some more comforting words before jogging next to him. Draco sighed. He turned to look at him. Harry gave a weak smile. 

“Why can’t you just trust me?” He asked, exhausted. Harry frowned.

“Don’t. That isn’t what this is and you know it. I trust you with my life.”

“Yeah, but you need to trust me with my own.” Draco told him, stopping so he could turn and look at him. Harry seemed to falter at that. “I know I’ve sucked at doing this so far. I couldn’t handle lying to you guys, I got myself caught up with Death Eaters sooner than I meant to, I’m not handling this summer as well as I should… I… I get it.” He said, rubbing the side of his arm. “And I know you’re scared for me and that sucks. I hate that I’m doing that to you, but…” He looked at the ground for a moment back and then back at him and shook his head. 

“But what?” Harry prompted. Draco looked at him.

“I’m going to do this - and I _want_ to trust you with it! I just can’t include you when you’re trying to fight me on everything. I’ve messed up, but I’ve also already helped a lot of people, Harry. I want to keep doing it. Pansy, Blaise, Astoria - I know you don’t think those are people worth saving, but I could have been one of them. I want to keep helping them. If all I can do is keep them alive and keep them from joining Voldemort then I think I’ve done a good damn job. And I’m going to get my parents on that list and I’m going to figure out every way to block Bellatrix and Donovan and the Carrows and Voldemort from getting to you, okay? I just am. I’m sick of having the _same_ argument with you over it again and again. If you want me to tell you what’s going on then stop getting in my way and _stop_ following me.” He said and turned away, leaving him to stand there. 

Honestly, Draco was a little surprised he didn’t follow. It seemed his lecture actually got through that thick head of his (hair and all). The following few days even included Harry not obsessively stalking him… well, not stalking him openly anyways. Draco wasn’t sure if this was Harry finally giving in or if he just was growing more and more preoccupied with that potions book of his. 

“You levitated Ron?! You can’t go using spells that you don’t know what they do!” Hermione said fiercely. Draco paused in sharpening Bellatrix’s knives. Well, the two he still had. Sirius had his third one and Draco was in no hurry to get it back. He had wanted to give another to his mother, but she had refused to accept... naturally. Maybe Andromeda would take one. As useful as they were, he tried to avoid looking or using them for the most part… but they did require a certain amount of upkeep. Ron was warily watching them as Harry seemed torn between annoyance and being properly scolded. 

“I’ll be more careful-”

“You need to turn that book in!” Hermione snapped. Draco paused. The book in question was sitting innocently in the center of them all on the floor. Deciding to be the problem-solver of the group, he put a knife up his sleeve and grabbed it. Harry immediately jerked to take it back, but Draco’s reflexes had gotten a lot quicker.

“Easy,” he said, “I’m just taking a look.” He told him and flicked open the textbook. Half-Blood Prince. What a ridiculous -

Wait. 

“You don’t know who this belonged to?” Draco frowned, skimming over the notes in the corner, “Seriously? Harry, look at the handwriting.” He scolded. The other three stared at him. “You don’t recognize it?” He asked, “It has been _six years_ and don’t you recognize it?”

Hermione would probably recognize it immediately. If only Harry had let her look at it... he might have gotten this 'mystery' of his resolved a lot sooner.

“Why? Whose is it?” Harry asked and Draco looked at him. This was a joke, right? Draco looked down, flipping more through the pages. He wondered if there was any good blackmail material in it… though, admittedly, the name itself was enough blackmail to last him a lifetime. The Half-Blood Prince? He wondered if this Half-Blood Prince decided to give himself an edgy nickname due to a group of prats walking around calling themselves ‘the Marauders’.

What a ridiculous generation of students. 

“Whose is it?” Harry asked again, regaining his attention. “I need to thank them for helping me with potions.” He added. Draco grinned. 

“Yeah, I bet this bloke would make a good potions professor, huh?” He asked. Harry gave a slight shrug.

“I mean, I’m not trying to be too nasty, but… He is kind of better than Snape.”

Draco loved everything about this. 

“Oh, yeah. Looks like it.” He chuckled and handed the book back, “I’m going to leave you to ponder over this a bit longer. I’m sure you’ll get it,” he said and Hermione’s furious eyes latched onto him. Ron groaned.

“Even after all these years you’re still so condescending.” He muttered. Draco chuckled before grabbing a few eggs and opening his trunk. Harriet was tucked away inside, curled in one of Draco’s scarves. He sighed as she lifted her head up. For the past few months she had remained the same muddy brown color and about the size of his forearm with no change. He turned to Harry.

“Can you ask her how she’s doing?” He asked, biting his lip. He _hated_ the idea that she wasn’t healing properly. Harry grimaced and edged closer to the trunk, putting his chin on his palm so he could hiss to her. After a few minutes, he nodded and sat back up.

“A bit more sun wouldn’t hurt…” He began cautiously. Draco inwardly sighed. That was fair… except the idea of her exposed and not safely tucked away made him nervous. Maybe he could just bring her out with him every once in a while. 

“Thanks.” He said and reached in to stroke her head. 

“She also told me to eat dirt so she is still herself,” Harry tacked on wryly. Draco smiled at that, beaming fondly down at Harriet. There were a few more pauses in which Harry gave a few hisses and hums. “Rude.” He finally said. Draco gave a questioning tilt of his head.

“She said she would heal faster if I didn’t talk so much.” 

“I suspected you were the reason she wouldn’t heal.” 

_“Hey-”_

* * *

Slughorn had crossed a motherfucking line.

The audacity of it all was really something else. Poor Hermione. Draco would have to do something nice for her soon. She seemed to share his outrage and indignance at having been separated from Draco during potions. They had been partners for years now, aside from Neville occasionally filling in the role when they were annoyed at one another or switching off if Harry and Ron got into an odd argument. 

Now it was her and Neville as Slughorn waved Draco to work with Harry for the period. 

“You are both so talented,” he said with a beaming smile, “I am expecting a _perfect_ amortentia!” Draco gave a tight smile before turning to look at Harry with what he hoped to be disapproving eyes. They both knew that, in truth, only one of them was talented at potions. Harry only gave a small shrug in return before he went about starting the potion. Draco sighed. 

“I thought we were supposed to do this class individually?” He frowned. Harry eyed Slughorn warily as he crushed the moonstone into fine dust. 

“I think he just wants an excuse for us to work together,” he rolled his eyes, “He’s seen you and Hermione… and your entrepreneurial spirit with Neville,” he added, “And he’s seen me and Ron work together. I think he’s just trying to figure out which pairing he likes best.” He explained. Draco frowned. Best for _what?_ Slughorn was quite an ambitious man who liked to have his fingers in many pies. There must be a reason he -

“Miss. Granger,” Slughorn said loftily, “Perhaps Mr. Weasley should also join you and Mr. Longbottom.”

...no way. Draco went back to the peppermint he was slicing, feeling his face heat up. The only thing Slughorn would like more than knowing and being responsible for successful wizards is knowing and being responsible magical _couples_. He shouldn’t be surprised. The amortentia lesson was skillfully placed right after Ginny and Harry had broken up _and_ Draco was sure the man had somehow gotten the scoop of Harry’s riveting development in his sexuality. 

Draco needed to tread very, very, _very_ carefully here. If this damn potion ended up smelling like Harry then he would lose his mind. Maybe he could muck it up on purpose?

“What are you doing?” Harry asked suspiciously as Draco went to drop some more pearl dust in. “That’s too much.” He said. Draco stared. Hermione was right. That damn book of his was _infuriating_. Normally, he would never have noticed if Draco messed with the measurements. He lowered his hand.

“Yeah. My mistake.” He said and went back to the peppermint. Harry stared at him for a couple of seconds and slowly went back to the moonstone. There was a moment where his eyes flicked to the completed potion of amortentia towards the front of the classroom. Draco had all but been holding his breath in an attempt to keep from smelling it. He tried subtly breathing through his mouth instead, but occasional wafts still came by (mainly thanks to his animagus’ stellar sense of smell). 

Hints of lavender soap hit him - much like what his mother used to wear - with whispers of Andromeda’s birthday cakes and something else he refused to identify even though it reminded him of grass and sun and rain hitting the ground. 

“Hermione,” Ron complained from the other side of the room, sounding annoyed, “I appreciate that you’re wearing the perfume, but was today honestly a good day?” He asked. When Hermione frowned at him, he tilted his head. “Your Christmas present from me last year.” He clarified. 

Draco grinned, pausing in his work to inwardly snicker as Hermione continued staring as if Ron had just announced he was part llama. When nobody said anything, Draco decided to intervene because the Gryffindor part of him did love causing problems. 

“She ran out of that perfume last month!” He sang and dumped rose thorns into the cauldron. Ron froze - eyes widening before he turned back to their cauldron with his face an obnoxious shade of red. Slughorn seemed to positively light up at the announcement. Harry snickered too.

"You must really like that perfume, Ron." He called and then frowned when he looked back down at their own cauldron, “They can smell theirs already?” He asked and leaned into where their cauldron had turned the right shade of purple with tendrils swirling up. “Ours isn’t very strong.” 

Draco had to agree… though, he at least, understood why that might be for him. Given his bad luck then there was a chance the potion might really smell like Harry, which meant he could just be having trouble picking up the other smells their potion was brewing because Harry was right there. Harry though? He wasn’t sure why he couldn't smell it. Unless...

“Well, we aren’t done yet,” he murmured and flicked his wand to stir it a bit more. “Though we should be getting close.” He admitted. Maybe something was wrong. He gave Harry’s potion book a wary look. He hoped that wasn’t the reason for their demise. 

“Harry, my boy. What do you smell?" Slughorn asked casually about ten minutes later. Harry was frowning at it with obvious disappointment. Draco was in the same boat, but mainly for a different reason. Among the other smells, he had relented enough to admit one of the stronger scents seemed to be the smell of spring. 

“I smell,” Harry said, leaning in a bit, “It’s hard to tell exactly… um, treacle tart. Wood, like a broomstick handle and…” He frowned and for some reason shoved Draco away as if that would somehow help him smell better. “Vanilla and mint?” He said, sounding a little alarmed.

“Vanilla _and_ mint?” Slughorn asked, a downright feral smile touching his lips. “Oh, how interesting. Most people only smell three things.” He said and when Harry fixed him with a concerned look, shrugged. “The last thing often happens to be associated with something the person wears. Shampoo, perfume, soap…” He explained.

Draco paused. Oh. He tried not to look at Harry, heart skipping. 

Unfortunately for him, Ron seemed dead set on revenge for Draco calling him out because he didn’t miss a beat as he fiercely glowered from his spot next to Neville.

“I know somebody who has a thousand different vanilla products in our bathroom.” He said and Draco spun around to give him the coldest look he could muster. “Also, you know who always seems to devour anything mint?” He began as Neville peered over curiously. 

“What do you smell, Draco?” He asked, both saving Harry and condemning Draco. Oh, come _on_. He pursed his lips, peering into the cauldron in hopes it would hide his face.

“I have a cold so I can’t smell anything.”

“Aw, that’s too bad.” Ron said in false sympathy, “You don’t _sound_ like you have a cold.”

“Hey, Hermione. Do you happen to smell butterscotch? I remember Viktor Krum ate a lot of those.” He said. Ron’s smugness dropped immediately as Hermione spluttered. 

“No, I do _not!”_ She shot back venomously. Draco shrugged. He would regret that later for sure… but it was at least a relief to not deal with it now as he turned back to Slughorn. 

“Well, it appears everyone has made exemplary amortentia!” He beamed.

Draco hated this man.

* * *

They had to discuss their career decisions again.

Or, at least, Draco did. He wasn't sure that anyone else was being forced into McGonagall's office to discuss their future. Perhaps she realized that Draco and Hermione were the only ones who might be interested in having a job. Draco was slightly convinced that Harry might just solve Hogwarts mysteries until he died and Ron would figure out a way to dodge life decisions in the same manner he dodged professors collecting homework assignments.

"Again?" Harry asked when Draco continued to grumble as he dragged himself out of bed to pull on a pair of socks, "She hasn't mentioned anything to me. Well, other than getting me into potions for auror stuff," he mused. Draco blinked as he turned to glance at him. He had forgotten about that.

"You still want to be an auror?" He asked curiously, "I thought that was just something you said to get out of thinking more on it." He told him. Harry spluttered in return, looking actually a little offended by Draco's comment - which was pretty rare at this point. Draco and Harry's friendship had required them to both learn how to take blunt and insensitive comments pretty well over the years.

"You don't think I can?"

"No, you definitely _can,"_ Draco snorted, throwing on a new set of robes, "It just doesn't seem very...I mean, is that really something you would enjoy?" He asked. Harry stared back blankly, "Listen, I _know_ you like seeking out trouble," he began, ignoring Harry's muttered reply under his breath, "But given these past few years and the upcoming war, I'm guessing you're going to get tired of all that real fast." He said, shrugging.

That gave Harry a pause.

"Maybe," he said after a couple minutes of consideration, "But I'm not really sure what else I could be. I'm not like you and Hermione with my grades." He said doubtfully. Draco rolled his eyes. Harry's grades - while not stunning - were acceptable in pretty much all areas that mattered. Besides, it wasn't like anyone would really care about the Boy-Who-Lived-Through-Bloody-Everything's grades. Assuming they won this war, he could ask to be Minister of Magic and the wizarding world would make it happen.

Not that he would be any good at it, but still.

"Harry, you know I can't be there to hold your hand through everything, right?" He asked. The comment was met with a herbology textbook being thrown at him. Draco dodged it easily as he straightened his collar, "You loved the DA. You love Hogwarts. Just become a professor or something. It would be the easiest job in the world for you to get and it's something you're good at." He told him. Harry chuckled.

"I'm not that studious, Draco."

"You wouldn't be a McGonagall, that's for sure," Draco muttered and grabbed his bag, "But I can assure you that half our professors weren't the studious bunch either. Remus may pretend, but we both know he focused more on making that God awful map than actually studying." He said and pointed a finger at Harry as he went towards door, "Just saying! Aurors have to do paperwork too, you know." He called.

"Paperwork?" He heard Harry echo and gave a low laugh before marching over towards the portrait hole.

"Alright," McGonagall told him the second Draco entered her office a few minutes later, "Come sit," she said and shifted some papers around, "Still a healer?" She asked, reciting Draco's answer the last time they had this conversation. He put his bag down.

"I suppose."

McGonagall paused.

"You _suppose?"_ She asked, eyes going dangerously bright. Draco resisted the urge to chuckle. He remembered all too well Harry telling him how McGonagall reacted when Umbridge said he couldn't be an auror. Professor I'll-Make-You-An-Auror-If-It-Is-The-Last-Thing-I-Ever-Do did not like anyone telling her students they had limitations - not even the students themselves.

"I mean, I know I can do it. I think I want to do it," he mused thoughtfully, "Assuming I live through the war, they'll need lots of healers so it's a good plan-"

"Mr. Malfoy," McGonagall interrupted, "While I appreciate your foresight, this is not about what people need. It is what you would like to do with your future."

Draco looked at her. He wanted to _live_. For his friends and family to live. Still, that wasn't what she needed to hear.

"I just think I might get tired of it in a few years," Draco said, rubbing the back of his neck, "And, uh, it... well, you have to deal with people _all the time_ and people... kind of annoy me." He admitted with a small shrug. McGonagall coughed - it might have been a laugh. "Not everyone, but... I mean, the... Listen, I had a first-year come up to me the other day crying about a their ear hurting and it turned out they put a marble in there. I can't deal with that everyday!"

This time McGonagall didn't even try to hide her laughter.

"There are different types of healers, Mr. Malfoy. I would advise you stay away from pediatrics," she mused and then looked down at her papers, "The potions you're working on with Mr. Longbottom... have you considered doing more on that?" He asked. Draco tilted his head.

"Oh. Well, we're really close on the one - and then we're thinking we can make more. Neville wants to find a way to work on reversing injuries with dark magic. Since I'm now learning some dark magic it's a good one to think on next," he said, "Also, we've been talking a bit with Hermione about finding a way to combine some muggle technology and magic since they normally can't interact. Granted, that would have to go beyond potions... I mean, there would be a potion _element_ , but we would need a bigger team with spells and muggle technology-"

McGonagall cleared her throat.

"Sorry." Draco said quickly.

"No, don't be sorry," she told him, voice going a bit more gentle than he was used to hearing it, "It is clearly what you are most excited about," she mused and looked over his list of classes, "I'm putting you in alchemy next year..." She mused, running her finger down the list, "Obviously, you'll stay in transfiguation, potions, charms, herbology, and defense against the dark arts, and... muggle studies."

"I - am I allowed to take seven classes?" Draco asked. McGonagall hummed.

"They don't conflict," she mused and shoved some papers at him, "I believe you can handle it." She informed him. Draco opened his mouth to argue and then found there was nothing about this situation he wanted to argue. McGonagall tilted her head. "Unless you are opposed?"

"No! No, I can do that." He said, looking through the pages. "Would I need to take N.E.W.Ts for all of them?"

"Just the core classes, not the electives." McGonagall told him, "Then if you choose to remain a healer you can, but you'll also have the tools to do whatever else you want with Longbottom... assuming you do not blow anything up." She said warily. Draco grinned at her. "And Mr. Malfoy?" She added when he grabbed his bag to put the papers in, "I want you to understand that when all of this is over... you will owe nothing to anyone. You and your friends should not make a single decision for anyone other than yourself. Am I clear?"

Draco looked at her for a moment before giving a small nod. He hoped she knew the same was true for her as well.

"Do you think Harry is suited for auror work?" He asked, a bit absently. McGonagall blinked. "I mean, obviously, he would be _good_ at it... and it isn't my business, but just curious on your thoughts." He shrugged. McGonagall's finger went to her lip, tapping it thoughtfully. After a few seconds she answered.

"He would hate the paperwork," she finally said and shook her head, "And the politics."

Draco chuckled. True enough. He hadn't thought of that part.

"If I were to choose a career for Mr. Potter," McGonagall continued as she shuffled more forms and transfiguration essays around, "It would have to be one where nobody told him what to do. It is the only way I think he would be productive." She said, muttering the last part under her breath. Draco snorted. He would have to relay that to Harry. He would be thrilled (and probably a little offended) to know McGonagall had finally accepted him as the wild miscreant he was. Based on Hermione's reaction to their most recent quidditch match... Hermione was not on the same boat.

“So,” Draco said as he clicked his tongue, “The evil, plotting part of you strikes again.” He said. Harry narrowed his eyes at him, “Hey, I, personally, love it. Hermione may be miffed, but that was bloody brilliant.” He congratulated. He watched as Harry tried and failed not to look pleased.

“Ron just needed some confidence,” he said fondly, running a hand through his hair. “I would never actually have given it to him.” Draco gave a noncommittal gesture. Honestly, he wouldn’t have cared too much if Harry _had_ given Ron the Felix Felicis… well, maybe he would. Only because it could be put to much better use though.

“Well, Lavender appears to be giving him _plenty_ of confidence.” He said, grimacing. Poor Hermione. He had expected it to happen, but it still sucked that it did. Harry glanced over at where Lavender was feeding Ron some grapes and made a face. “Pretty sure they’ll be going to Slughorn’s Christmas party together.” He sighed. While Slughorn had been _quite_ taken with Hermione, he was still a little uncertain about Ron. It was really only Draco’s needling that had him keep being included. Draco wasn’t sure _why_. Ron had done pretty much everything Harry, Draco, and Hermione had done… plus Slughorn liked Ginny. It was actually kind of annoying that Ron was overlooked.

“Who are you going with?” Harry asked. Draco paused. Oh. Right. He looked Harry over curiously. Technically… _technically_ , Harry and Ginny weren’t together anymore. Rumor had it that Ginny had asked Dean Thomas to go with her (as friends), which meant that theoretically… “I was thinking of taking Luna, but Tristam beat me to it.” Harry continued and Draco felt any courage he might have had flatten.

“Um,” Draco said, “I haven’t thought about it. Probably with Neville as friends or something.” He said. Harry nodded. “I mean, you could invite Michael Corner.” He said lightly. Harry made a face. 

“I _guess_ , but I don’t really know him that well.” He mused, “Do you know who Hermione’s going with? She said she already had someone too.” He grumbled. Draco snorted. “You _do_. Who is it?”

“A... surprise.” He said and then tapped his fingers absently against the table. There was an awkwardness settling over them. Draco decided to change the subject before it got too tense, “Unrelated, but I’ve been meaning to talk to you about… something.” He began. Harry tilted his head. “I just need you to be mature about it.” He warned. 

“I’m ridiculously mature.” Harry told him with such a solemn expression that Draco had already decided this was probably not going to go well. Draco only gave a weak smile in return. “Is something wrong?” Harry asked, a hint of concern suddenly touching his features. Draco absently tugged at his collar.

“Well, you keep saying I can talk to you if I need to…” He began slowly, “And, well, I don’t really want to tell you everything, but…” He wrinkled his nose, trying to pick out the right words. “I just need you to please, _please_ not use this against me.” 

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, I’m going to tell you something bad that happened and I don’t want to hear you using it as an excuse for me not to do what I need to do in the future.” He snapped. Harry pursed his lips. It was an unspoken understanding that Harry was still watching him… and Draco wouldn’t mention it. After all, if they didn’t talk about it then they didn’t fight. Harry wouldn’t ask questions and Draco didn’t tell him to knock his bullshit off. “Can you do that?”

Harry pursed his lips.

“I think so,” he said and when Draco glared, sighed. “ _Fine_. Why not Hermione or Ron though? You’ve mentioned things to them.” He said with a note of bitterness in his voice. Draco rolled his eyes. He hadn’t, really. Hermione knew about the veritaserum thing and Ron… well, Ron obviously knew about the watch, obviously, but that was about it. 

“They… haven’t seen anyone die yet. You have.” Draco murmured. Harry’s face softened.

“Amelia Bones?” He asked. Draco shook his head. 

“Somebody else… have you heard of an inferius?” He asked. Harry frowned, but shook his head. “It’s...a dead body that is reanimated.” He explained slowly. “Sort of like necromancy, but the body has to obey the wizard that conjures it.” He said. Harry’s eyes widened slightly, but he didn’t interrupt as Draco continued. “After - after someone died… Voldemort made one. He was angry with me. Really angry.” He said and clutched at his throat absently. “So he killed someone and sent one after me. That’s what gave me these.” He said, gesturing to the scars that sat on his neck, moving down to his chest. 

“An inferius?” He asked. Draco nodded. Harry thought it over. “I… that would be awful. Who was it?” He asked and Draco flinched. “Sorry. You don’t have to tell me.” Harry said quickly. 

“I… I was trying to…” Draco said, words fumbling over one another. He gave an annoyed huff. “I watched a lot of people die this summer. I killed and I tortured people. I snuck some out and lied and… I can’t… I know I saved quite a few people, but… that inferius bothers me the most.” He managed. “Amelia Bones bothers me. Yaxley does too sometimes. It just isn’t the same with…” He trailed off. Harry tilted his head.

“Yaxley?” He repeated softly. Draco nodded. “Was that what upset Voldemort?”

He was really so much smarter than Draco ever gave him credit for. 

“Yeah,” Draco muttered and picked at the table, “I don’t know. Did you ever stop seeing Cedric?” He asked. Harry stared for a moment. There were a few beats of silence that didn’t seem to bode well. Finally, Harry leaned over and touched his wrist.

“Not completely.” 

Depressing. He would be forced to see that face for the rest of his life then. White, cloudy eyes with limbs moving around like strings on a puppet-

“Brilliant.” He managed to breathe out before Draco could devolve further. Harry’s hand squeezed reassuringly.

“It does get better though,” he assured him and Draco felt his eyes digging into him before finally letting himself look up. “Whatever exactly happened, I’m sure you tried to do the right thing.”

“Doesn’t really mean much when people die.”

“Sure it does,” Harry said and let go, “It just doesn’t feel that way.” He added and then gave Draco a curious look. “Why did you kill Yaxley?” He said. Draco opened his mouth, maybe to tell him everything, and then paused.

No. There was only one person he could tell that to… for now, at least.

“It’s complicated.” Draco said instead. Harry pursed his lips, but didn’t argue. He just tapped his fingers against the table for a moment. 

“We should go to Slughorn’s party together,” Harry said suddenly. Draco jumped. “Um, you know, because it, uh, makes sense. Since we both have stuff going on.” He reasoned out. Draco tilted his head. He didn’t quite see how them having trauma meant they should attend an event together, but he wasn’t one to pass up an opportunity.

“Yeah,” he agreed, “That makes sense.”

It didn’t. Who cares? Harry blushed, looking oddly proud of himself before there was a warlike cry at the other end of the hall. 

“DRACO!” Neville shrieked, effectively silencing everyone within a good hundred yards, “I DID IT!” He yelled, holding up a rather hideous looking plant. Draco sat up.

“My God,” he whispered, “He did it.”

“Did what?” Harry asked and Draco scrambled up, rushing towards where Neville was eagerly bouncing around. “What is happening?” Harry called after him.

“Have to go! We’re about to be rich!” He shouted over his shoulder. Professor McGonagall paused from where she was walking by to look at them both warily. 

“Mr. Malfoy, may I inquire as to what you and Mr. Longbottom seem so pleased about?” She asked, raising an eyebrow. Draco picked up the plant Neville showed him and cackled maniacally.

“You’ll never need those glasses again, Professor!” He said, dragging Neville away, “All of you will finally stop looking like fools!”

“Draco, that’s rude.” Hermione’s voice told him, which was really concerning because he couldn’t even see her, but there were other things happening at the moment.

“Sorry!” He shouted, dragging Neville out of the hall.

The day was shaping up quite nicely. 

Well, it was for a bit at least. Naturally, things had to go awry at Slughorn’s stupid Christmas party. Draco wasn’t sure what he expected. Things were just going too goddamn well for him. Listen, as someone whose life peaked at age ten, hit rock bottom at eleven, peaked again at age fourteen... then hit below rock bottom into Hell… He should know how this pattern works.

“No, no, no - don’t you dare!” Harry said, scrambling away from him. They were both in dressrobes for Slughorn's party (even if Harry was set on ruining his by running away like a coward).

“Just for tonight!”

“No!” Harry said adamantly. “I won’t be your test subject.” He told him. Draco pouted.

“....come on, please?” He asked as pathetically as possible. Considering Draco wasn’t a pathetic person, it seemed to throw Harry off a bit. “Just a drop?”

“Draco,” Harry sighed, but did pluck the bottle from his hands and took off his glasses, “How long is this stuff even supposed to last?” He asked, putting a few drops in his eyes. Hermione gave him that idea. She said muggle eye drops were put directly in your eyes and Draco was pretty sure that would increase potency anyways.

“We haven’t gotten the science down. Either a few hours or a month. McGonagall said no to dark magic on school grounds so it definitely isn't permanent.” 

“Great,” Harry muttered and blinked a few times as bright green drops went into his eyes, “....I can’t see anything.” He announced. Draco frowned.

“It didn’t work?”

“No, I mean I can’t _see anything._ ” He said, voice rising with a note of panic. Draco stared before feeling a stab of panic hit his own chest. Shit. 

“Okay,” he said, voice high, “Let’s go to the Hospital Wing and - _Harry_!” he growled when the idiot started laughing. “Fuck, you scared me. That isn’t funny!”

“It was a little bit.” He assured him. Ugh. Whatever. “I can see really well though,” he added as he looked around, placing his glasses in his pockets. Draco frowned. He looked different without the glasses. “What?”

“Nothing… Just weird to see you have a face.” Draco said, tilting his head. Harry scoffed and pulled his glasses back out again. “What are you doing?”

“I want to see what you look like with them!” He said brightly and Draco dove away. No way. He drew the line here. He would _not_ be one of those idiots he needed _glasses_ to see. His eyes were superior enough to right, thank-you-very-much. Harry still eventually got them on him (the boy was _blind_ , holy fuck), but Draco refused to wear them outside the dorm. They ended up arguing about it all the way to the party. 

The party itself was… one of the strangest things he had ever seen, quite frankly.

Slughorn had what his mother might call ‘a rich sympathizer taste’. It was essentially as if someone decided to buy a bunch of things you might find in a lower-class house, but clearly spent a lot of money on them. For example, the drapings (while silk and very pricey looking) made them look like they were in a circus tent of some sort. The ornate chandeliers and lanterns looked as if they had been collected from several places. He was almost reminded of the Burrow… if the Burrow included ridiculously overpriced versions of everything in it. 

“Huh,” Harry said as a house elf wobbled by with a silver platter. Ginny, Zoe (when had she been invited? He shouldn’t be surprised… Slughorn _would_ love the malnatus), Lavender, Ron (who looked _pissed_ ), and Neville were mingling among the others as Tristam unbraided his hair for Luna to put some strange weed into it.

“Draco! Harry!” Hermione called, weaving throughout the crowd. Draco laughed, noticing her hair was also intricately braided. Either Luna or Tristam must have gotten a hold of her… possibly both. She was wearing flowing, purple dress robes that might have been Zoe’s (honestly, did they all get together to help her get ready? Why wasn’t he invited?).

“Hey!” Draco said and grinned at her, “You look nice.” He said and she flushed, looking down at herself.

“...everyone thought I was going with Ron.” She admitted, looking downright distraught. Oh. Yikes. “So they wanted to help me get ready… then my _proper_ date came…” She added and crossed her arms over her chest to fix him with a firm look. Draco glanced at Harry and leaned forward.

“Sorry… I _was_ going to invite Neville!” 

“Traitor! We were supposed to invite people we _didn’t_ like!”

“ _He_ invited _me_!” Draco defended and Hermione pushed him away with a huff. She didn’t look too terribly upset though. That was something. 

“And, um, who did you invite?” Harry asked and then paused when his newly working eyes landed on McLaggen. “You _didn’t_.” He said, lip curling into intense dislike. He turned to give Hermione a disappointed look. Hermione, in turn, gave Draco an accusing look.

He shrugged helplessly in return. Technically, McLaggen had been her idea.

“Harry, my boy!” Slughorn said, sweeping in from seemingly nowhere to grab Harry. Hermione’s eyes widened and she fled, possibly noticing Cormac getting closer as he scanned the room. Draco rolled his eyes. Damn fools. He nodded from his place in the middle of the floor, now abandoned and alone. He figured he should either save Harry (who was looking distraught by… was that Eldred Worple? Oh, how fun. Draco would be saying hi to him later) or maybe just join his friends who were all speaking to Sanguini. Tristam was adamantly trying to keep his attention by asking what would happen if a vampire bit a banshee. 

In the end, he decided to take care of the biggest problem currently facing him.

“McLaggen!” He called, “Hermione and I were meeting here if you’re looking for her.” He said and the boy whipped around. His eyes landed on Draco before wrinkling his nose.

“Hermione?” He repeated with interest and sighed, “Yes, I suppose I’ll join you. I hadn’t meant to lose her. I was trying to be attentive.”

Lose her. Attentive. Like she was a child. Draco gave a grimace in return. 

“Right through here,” he said, gesturing to an area where all the curtains seemed to be bunched together against a wall to form a sort of impromptu maze. Just as McLaggen turned, looking for Hermione, Draco brought out one of Bellatrix’s knives and pressed his right up against his stomach. “So,” he continued as McLaggen jumped.

“Hey what the Hell are you doi-?”

“Shh,” Draco said and pressed the knife in harder, “Look. We just need to talk and if anyone were to investigate why you suddenly died in the middle of a party I don’t want them to check my wand,” he shrugged, “So… here we are.”

“Suddenly died?! Okay, okay - just calm _down-”_

“Shut up, you arrogant prat,” He said, rolling his eyes, “You've done your job tonight,” He told him, thinking about the peeved look on Ron's face when he had entered. McLaggen opened his mouth again, but fell silent when Draco pressed the knife further in. “Stop bothering Hermione.”

“She invited me here!” 

“Aw, I don’t care,” Draco mimicked back, “I’m her best friend so if I don’t like you… you're out,” He said with a click of his tongue. In truth, that wasn’t really how it worked with Hermione - it never had worked that way - but he would rather McLaggen blame him for the relationship not working out than accuse Hermione of using him (which… she was, but still). “Now say daddy is calling you and leave.”

McLaggen’s eyes hardened.

“You wouldn’t use that.” He challenged with a nod at the knife. Draco laughed. 

“No? You want to test that theory?” He asked and for good measure pressed the tip of the knife in, edging the magic inside to freeze his blood. McLaggen shivered before stepping back. “You have three seconds. Three… two-”

He was gone. Draco rolled his eyes and put the knife back into his robes. Dumbass. At least he could tell Hermione he made it up to her after going rogue from their initial plan. He straightened his hair before walking back out. 

“Dinner!” Slughorn called. His arm was still slung around Harry. When their eyes met, Draco grinned at him, ignoring the panicked gesture Harry was giving him to intervene. He wanted to talk to Eldred Worple over whatever Slughorn was going to force them to eat and maybe have a glass of wine. 

Unfortunately, as soon as he sat down, Slughorn decided to pull him into the madness. 

“Mr. Malfoy, I’m glad you made it as well! I noticed Harry here is no longer wearing his glasses. I assume you and Mr. Longbottom are responsible for that?” He asked, eyes glittering. Draco laughed and turned to where Neville was smiling shyly. 

“We might have to take credit,” Draco admitted. “This is the first test run, admittedly. Neville thinks a different dosage of dittany might work better.” He began as they both began launching into the specifics of the potion. 

“...nerds.” Tristam grumbled as he turned to Luna, “Can you believe they’re such nerds?”

“Could be the heliopaths.” She mused. Ginny smiled warmly at her as Tristam seemed to mull over that. 

“You’re right. What exactly are heliopaths though?” He asked, going off on another side-tangent with Luna. 

Slughorn laughed, clapping his hands. 

“Wonderful! Quite exemplary. Both of you.” He mused, taking a sip of his drink, “I still don’t understand how ambition such as yours didn’t end up in my own house, Draco.” He said and Draco chuckled. 

“I think it is the sorting hat’s idea of a joke.” He mused. Slughorn laughed again.

“Ah, well. I’ll admit it’s humor is lost on me - and who did you ask here, my boy?” Slughorn asked. Ugh. Right. Okay. Draco inwardly felt himself melt as the table turned to him, eyes curiously looking him over with a level of expectation. This was clearly a segway to ask much more personal questions about Harry and Draco’s relationship that he just wasn’t ready to delve into. Not now. Not in front of all these people. He glanced over at Harry who seemed to be thinking along similar lines as he watched the table warily. From where he was seated next to Lavender, Ron took a bite of chicken before raising his eyebrows at them both.

“Oh,” Draco began nervously. Somewhere in the back of his mind, his animagus senses perked up. Was that... cinnamon? “Well… I, um-”

“Sorry, I’m late!” A voice cut him off. Draco froze. The entire table turned in unison to greet the newcomer with a collective murmur. “It was a _nightmare_ flooing over with all the new restrictions the Ministry set in place.” 

Draco felt the blood completely leave his face. He didn’t even bother to look up for a reaction. It seemed to pale in the face of this new, very real and concerning problem at hand. Slughorn’s face lit up - possibly recognizing the guest despite having never met before.

“Oh, no matter. I suppose you are young Mr. Malfoy’s guest then?” He asked and the chair beside Draco slid back. Was this a dream? It felt impossible - it should _be_ impossible. 

Shit, shit, shit, shit -

“That I am,” Came a bright response, “I believe I already know most of you, but for pleasantries’ sake…” He laughed and gave a small, almost mocking wave. “I’m Theodore Nott.” 

* * *

Dumbledore had _warned_ him. Damnit, he had warned him!

To obliviate someone - and keep their memory from coming back - you had to _mean_ it. Really, truly mean it in the same way you had to mean unforgivable curses. There must have been some part of him that hadn’t wanted Theo to forget. 

...and _boy_ was he going to be pissed. Draco was already internally crumbling at the look on Tristam's face. Zoe was watching Theo with a similar askance as they both looked at one another from across the table. Theo also looked back at them for a moment - a brief hint of regret touching his features as he saw his friends before refocusing on his conversation with Slughorn.

“Oh, Beauxbatons is just lovely,” he was saying as Draco tried not to panic beside him. Theo casually threw an arm around his shoulders, keeping him from jumping up from the table altogether, “I hadn’t been sure about the transfer, but I thought a change of scenery was needed with… you know, the Dark Lord regaining power and what not.” Theo said to the table as he licked ice cream off his spoon, “You know, I didn’t even realize how badly I wanted to transfer until I was there. Funny how that works, isn’t it? Almost like… some arrogant, higher force decided what was best for me.” He chuckled.

Yep. This was… not great. 

“You invited Theo?” Harry whispered as soon as dinner ended and they got up to mingle, “I hadn’t realized you two kept in contact.”

“No,” Draco whispered back, trying not to sound distressed… partly because Theo just turned up randomly out of the blue, but also because he wouldn’t _do_ that to Harry. “He isn’t supposed to be-”

“Potter!” Theo called, saving Draco from having to answer. “It’s been so long. How have you been?” He asked and reached over to link his arm with Draco’s. “Still drooling over other people's romantic interests?" He asked and Draco internally screamed, "I’ve been meaning to write, actually, I just… kept _forgetting_ …” He said with a fake sigh, "Ah! Weasley!" Theo added before Harry could respond, "Good to see you as well!"

"Theo-" Draco started as Ron walked over with Lavender hanging off of him.

"Nott," he greeted suspiciously and glanced at Draco. In response, Draco grabbed his watch, wishing it worked both ways so Ron knew it how distressed he was, "This is a surprise."

"It was a surprise to me too," Theo smiled cryptically, "Let me guess, you want to warn me not to hurt poor, innocent Draco?" He asked, putting a hand over his heart, "Because we all know just how... docile he is. Right, Draco?" He added.

Oh, this was _torture_.

“Um, could I actually have a word?” Draco asked before anyone could respond. Theo frowned.

“Oh, but I have so much catching up to do! Where’s Granger? Or did she decide to go off to Durmstrang?” He asked flatly. Draco gave a fake laugh before forcefully grabbing his arm and steering them away from the crowd. “You seem tense,” Theo told him, “Is something bothering you, sweetheart?”

“What the Hell?” He hissed, practically shoving him into an empty broom closet before Tristam or Zoe could try and corner them.

“No,” Theo hissed back as all his feigned sweetness dropped away, “You don’t ask what the Hell! I get to ask that! Because what the _Hell?”_ He spat and threw up his hands, “Who do you think you are?” 

“Okay, I know. I _know_ there are some things we have to discuss, but before you say anything just know I had to do it to keep you safe-”

“No! No, fuck you. Don’t give me that bullshit,” Theo hissed, finger trembling in front of Draco’s nose. “You can say you did it because you care. You may even think that’s why, but I’m not going to lie to myself like you do.”

“I-”

“Would you have done this to Harry?” Theo asked. Draco reeled back as if he had been hit. What did that mean? It felt so out of the blue, but Theo was clearly waiting for an answer.

“That’s not the sa-”

“No,” Theo translated for him, “No, you wouldn’t have. You know why you wouldn’t have? Because you actually care about him.” 

“I care about you too! I don't even - you came all the way here to tell me _that?”_

“I came all the way here because you took my memory away, brainwashed me, and hid me in the middle of nowhere while telling everyone that I transferred to Beauxbatons!” Theo half-yelled, half-whispered. “And then I _finally_ snap out of it and realize Pansy is suddenly with me and, according to her, you are now a motherfucking _Death Eater_ who has been taking Slytherins who won’t fight and hiding them away like some sort of pureblooded vigilante!” 

"Listen, I can explain everythin-”

“It sounds like you gave _them_ a choice on the matter, which was really kind of you, Draco. I would have appreciated the opportunity myself, actually.” He said and pushed him back. “How could you do that to me?” He asked and pushed him again, “Does anyone else even bloody know what you are and what you’re doing?”

“You would have stopped me-”

“I’ll fucking hex you, Malfoy.” 

”What do you want me to say?” Draco asked desperately. “Look, I messed up with you. I know I did. You were the first person I had to actually confront and it didn't help with you threatening to turn me over the bloody ministry!" He added furiously as he shoved Theo's hand away from him.

“Of course I would have told the ministry!” Theo shot back, “You have been tricked and brainwashed into breaking the law, Draco. You’re letting Dumbledore _use you-”_

“No,” Draco argued back fiercely, “I mean, I know… I know he’s using me. I’m not an idiot, but this was still my choice, Theo.” He said and Theo snorted. “Voldemort is back. I’m trying to protect the people I care about.”

“Yeah… I can really see that, Draco. I really feel like I made that list.” He said and looked away for a moment, “I should have told the second I saw you that summer. It would have saved us both so much trouble.” 

“Even if I was unregistered and you got me thrown into Azkaban?!”

“At least you wouldn’t be doing _this!”_ Theo said and Draco blinked a bit in shock. He had suspected that answer, honestly, but hearing it was a little more jarring. Theo paused - momentarily stunned by his own words before shaking them away. “It doesn’t matter now.” He said slowly. The anger was seeping away. Draco could see it slowly leaving his expression to instead give way to exhaustion. 

No. No, he needed Theo to stay angry. To keep talking about this… because if they kept talking about this then they… they could… they didn’t have to talk about… He looked away, momentarily overwhelmed with everything. Tears were prickling at his eyes. This was the worst thing that could have happened. For a moment, Theo’s anger seemed to completely falter altogether. 

“Draco,” Theo sighed and raised a hand to brush his cheek lightly. Draco flinched. “What’s happening right now?” He asked. Draco looked at him. This was his worst nightmare. Several of his worst nightmares combined. “What happened to your neck?” He added, touching the scars. 

He should lie. It was safer to lie… or stun him. Maybe obliviate him again. Anything, but the truth. Draco knew that was the worst thing he could possibly do.

“I need to tell you something,” he said anyways, “I thought I had time.” 

“If you think it’s going to be funny to say you’re an animagus I will be _pissed,”_ Theo warned. Draco just stared. “...no? Why are you looking at me like that?” He asked. “Look, I only came here to tell you off before finding Winston. You can come with us. I’m pissed as Hell, but Winston would never forgive me if I didn’t invite you. Besides, I need to find the Hallows…” He mused and Draco paused.

“The what?”

Theodore sniffed, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Well, I could have told you this a _long_ time ago if… you know, I had _remembered_ , but my parents used to whisper about Voldemort wanting a Deathly Hallow during the last war.” He said and shook his head, “I’m not sure why he wouldn’t want all of them, but Winston and I are going to try and find them before he can get to them.” He explained. Draco stared.

The Deathly fucking Hallows were _real?_ He had no idea what to make of that.

“If he gets them all then he could be immortal,” Theo added and Draco gave a hesitant nod, “Winston mentioned there might be one at Hogwarts… I need to find him to ask if he’s found it.” He added, rubbing the back of his neck, “Look, I don’t know if you even believe in that stuff, but if you really want to be involved in the war that badly then you just have to stop whatever this nonsense is you’re doing and come with me.” He said, folding his arms over his chest. Draco looked at the ground. Part of him wanted to ask more about whatever Theo was rambling on about… but there was something else he needed to address first.

In years to come… after future torture, fear, and death… this moment remained one of the most painful of his life. 

“I need to tell you something,” Draco finally repeated. His voice sounded thick and distant. Theo blinked. For the first time since this conversation started, Draco could see a flash of fear go over his face. “You… you can’t find Winston.”

“Why not?”

“Theo,” Draco tried and took a long breath, “You have to understand I _tried_. I tried everything. I killed Yaxley to protect him. I tried so hard-” He managed, voice growing more and more desperate with every word. “-Voldemort said he was my responsibility and that if he betrayed him that there would be consequences. I was going to find a way to sneak him out to you.” Draco continued, voice growing faster and more panicked. “But Winston panicked and went to the Order before I could stop him. Donovan caught him and... it happened when I wasn't there so I didn't even know at first, but... It was quick. I promise it was quick.”

Theo stared blankly back.

“He’s… he’s dead?” Theo repeated and blinked a few times. “But… Winston… My parents are Death Eaters. He’s pureblood. Why would they want to kill him in the first place?”

Draco felt his blood go cold. He wasn't sure he could voice the answer. Theo took a shaking breath and Draco gathered whatever courage he had left.

“They were looking for you. Winston was worried they would use him to find you. That’s why he wanted to tell the Order. I _said_ you were safe and that I would tell the Order anyways, but he didn’t trust me to do it-”

“He… my brother is… he’s dead... because they were looking for _me?”_ Theo repeated numbly. “Winston is…” He tried again as if saying it another time would help, “But… he… I.... I didn’t mean to disappear,” Theo murmured, “I didn’t ask-” He started and then cut himself off. Draco watched as the numbness melted away into tight features and a clenched jaw, “I didn’t ask to just _disappear_ and leave my family unprotected!” He shouted, voice growing thick with emotion. Draco closed his eyes. “You… you…” He began and took a sharp breath, “How _could_ you? You didn’t think to protect him after sending me away? You didn’t think about how that would look on my family? That they wouldn't be punished for having a deserter?” He growled, hands shaking by his sides. Draco swallowed.

“I was planning to look for Winston over the summer,” Draco said quickly, “But then I got taken and… I tried-”

“I don’t care that you tried!” Theo shouted, “My brother is _dead!_ Because _you_ locked me away and took away my _fucking_ memory! What even happened to him? Did he even give him back to my parents or is he just rotting somewhere?” He asked. Draco looked away, “ _Draco-”_

“I told you it was my punishment!” Draco shouted back, breaking. “He - Theo, I’m _sorry.”_

“What does that mean?” Theo said, shoving him back. “What did they do with him?” He asked and his eyes fell to the scars on Draco’s neck. Perhaps he sensed a connection, but couldn’t find the missing link.

“Inferius.” Draco finally told him. Theo stared. His chest was rising and falling rapidly, eyes glazing over as he looked at Draco with as much hatred as Draco knew he would. He closed his eyes for a moment before turning away, shoving the door open. “Theo-”

“Stay the Hell away from me.” He whispered, "You... just stay away from me," he choked out and pushed himself out of the room. There was a loud bang from him knocking something over as he left. The party outside paused for a moment - whispers rising before the music slowly restarted. Draco closed his eyes and sank to the ground. Damnit. He buried his face in his knees. This was… not ideal.

He couldn't remember how to breathe. With shaking fingers, he grabbed the watch around his neck and squeezed it tightly in hopes that Ron had maybe thought to put something a little extra in there. Nothing.

“If you are willingly sitting on the floor there is a major problem.”

Draco tried to laugh. He did. Only it came out more like a sob as Harry entered the closet and knelt down in front of him.

“I got Winston killed,” he finally said, “He was in the inferius I told you about. Theo… I obliviated him last year to keep anyone from finding out about what I was doing with Dumbledore. Only everyone found out anyways. He was just the first and I didn't know how to handle it and now someone is dead,” He said, laughing a bit hysterically. “So, go ahead. Say I told you so. I can’t do this. I’m horrible at it and scared all the _fucking_ time and I’ll probably be the one to get my parents kill anyways. And you.” He added, running a hand through his hair.

Harry sighed. There was pressure on his hand and it took Draco a moment to realize it was Harry’s hand as he squeezed tightly. 

“I thought you were smarter than me,” Harry said solemnly. Draco glanced up, “I _almost_ believed you too. Now you’re saying nonsense and I’m not so sure.” He told him. When Draco continued staring, he shook his head. “I’m sorry, Draco. I’m always the one in danger so I don’t know how to handle other people in danger very well. You were right before… not now though,” he added and shifted so he was sat crossed legged instead of kneeling. “If anyone in the world can do this… it’s you. That doesn’t mean you have to. I would still be pretty thrilled if you decided not to do this and just stayed with us… but don’t think you can’t.” 

“Winston-”

“You killed a Death Eater for him. You put your life on the line for him.” He shook his head, “And you ultimately paid the price when he died. You can’t keep punishing yourself for it. Besides, you’ve already saved people. Snape’s a double agent and I don’t think he’s done what you’ve done.” He reasoned. It was honestly a little alarming how he was just... accepting this information with barely any reaction. Draco thought back to their conversation a couple days ago under the tree.

“Severus has a different mission,” Draco murmured. What that mission was… well, he had no idea, but he knew Severus had one. 

“Well, you chose yours. Look, I don’t want to inflate your already _massive_ ego, but… you’re really smart. And brave. And ridiculously charismatic… when you want to be, I mean. It’s to the point where I think you might be able to convince Voldemort to have brunch with Hermione.” 

“I would never endanger the Dark Lord’s life like that.” He whispered and Harry snorted. 

“Slughorn is probably right that you belong in Slytherin,” Harry added, “Being pureblood and resourceful and ambitious and loyal… I get it.” He shrugged, “But you’re with us because you’re brave. Braver than anyone I’ve ever met… So, stop saying stupid stuff.” He said, rubbing the back of his neck nervously at the end. Draco looked at him. There was an odd warmth in his chest. It didn’t completely erase the guilt, but it seemed louder in these moments so that he could ignore it. 

He should probably find Theo. It was dangerous for him to be seen here. Death Eaters might come for him. Hell, Theo might turn him over in a fit of rage. It was a serious problem, quite frankly. 

And yet, he instead said:

“You’re wearing your glasses again.”

Harry touched his face. 

“Yeah, the potion wore off,” he said and slid over so they were no longer facing each other, but instead touching shoulders. “So it worked for about an hour. Hope you don’t mind looking at them again.” He said dramatically. Draco smiled.

“I like you with them better.” He decided. Harry tilted his head a bit at that. He looked at Draco before taking a long breath and turning to face forward. 

“I didn’t ask you to the party because we both… I don’t even remember what I said. We both had trauma or something.”

“It was a dumb reason,” Draco agreed. Harry rolled his eyes.

“I asked you because I really wanted to go with you… as not exactly… friends.” He said slowly, nose wrinkling a bit. “I don’t know how you feel about that.” He said and Draco bit the inside of his cheek.

“I got drugged and told Bellatrix I had a crush on you this summer,” he opened with… because that was _such_ a romantic statement to open with. Harry pulled back in alarm. “What I avoided telling her was that I’m pretty sure I’ve known I would end up liking you since we were eleven.” 

“You fancied me back then?”

“No,” Draco said, flicking him, “I most certainly did not. I think I just… always knew that I would. Someday. Someday being now.” He added. Harry smiled at him in that stupid way he always smiled when he was delighted by something he wasn’t sure he should be delighted by. “I don’t know how _you_ feel about that.” 

“I… can… maybe show you how I’m feeling?” Harry suggested, leaning in slightly. Draco could smell spring on him all over again. A million different scents combining into one that was so specifically _Harry_. He could feel his breath as they closer and -

Draco looked down.

“Sorry!” Harry began, alarmed. Draco laughed.

“No, I want to. I do. I just… I don't want to kiss you for the first time when I’m sad and just had my ex-boyfriend shout at me for getting his brother killed.” He reasoned, “Ideally, I would be a lot happier and able to enjoy the whole thing a lot more.” 

There was a pause. Draco wondered if he had somehow mucked this up already. 

“You’re a _romantic_ ,” Harry finally said and Draco turned to stare at him, “Underneath all the sarcasm and insults you are a romantic. That is amazing.” He decided and Draco gave a small huff of disapproval. He was _not_ a romantic. Not wanting to snog someone after trauma seemed very normal to him. A romantic. _Please_.

And you know what? He would prove that he wasn’t… because sitting in a broom closet all night (even past when the stupid party ended) with someone who you weren’t snogging was probably the least romantic thing one could do.

And that was exactly what Draco did. 

* * *

This next morning was, tragically, Christmas. They were all staying at Hogwarts this year much to the collective dismay of their friend group. It was apparently ’safer’ and… No, that was it. Just safer. 

Either way, it was hard to be in the festive mood given Theo’s reemergence. Draco had gone to Dumbledore already but hadn't heard too much on the matter. Draco figured he would wait and see Theo’s first move before reacting too rashly. He should also write Andromeda to let him know he left her safe house. It might be a good idea to move the others.

However, that was not to say Christmas wasn't…. Interesting. For starters, Draco woke up to about forty gifts by his bed all wrapped in silver paper.

“Your parents are pleased with you then.” Ron said as Draco ran his hand over one of the more expensive robes he had been gifted. 

“It would seem so… it isn’t as much as what they used to get me though.” He mused. Ron made a face between disgust and alarm. Harry grimaced.

“You’ve somehow outdone my cousin.” He muttered and Draco shrugged. Eh. Whatever. Most of the presents from his family (it appeared his father could still organize things even from within Azkaban) were pretty typical stuff. Admittedly, while he was pleased, he kind of preferred his other set of smaller presents.

Sirius had decided to fully embrace his new role at Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes and sent him (and everyone else) various products from puking pastels to muggle magic tricks. 

Andromeda had made him a scrapbook, which was super disgusting and Draco hated it, but also he couldn’t help but grin down at the photos of him and Dora together before flipping the page to a photo with him and Hermione arguing passionately over something or another while a distressed Ron sat in between them. There was another of him and Harry laughing that he also hated with every fibre of his being. 

Severus had gone the practical route and given him a book of dark magic with strict instructions to use a concealing charm and keep it hidden at all times. Ron and Hermione both shared similar sentiments because they had worked together to make Draco’s watch a two-way communication system. He wasn't sure if they had somehow read his mind yesterday or not, but appreciated it all the same.

”That way if you're in trouble you can use it to tell us, ” Hermione was saying, "Here. Try it." She instructed. Draco picked up the watch and squeezed. Ron grabbed his matching one and went quiet for a couple seconds as he tried to register what Draco had sent over.

"You feel... very please and think I'm the best person in the world? Why thank you, Draco!"

"It doesn't work." Draco told Hermione flatly as Ron snickered. Harry looked at the gift with approval before showing his own, “Harriet!” He shouted when the snake flickered between green and purple, “She’s better! How did you even...? You better not have experimented on her!” He added. Not that he could be too upset given that she was clearly doing so much better. 

Ron laughed.

“You actually did it, oh my God,” he said brightly. Harry stuck his tongue out. “What did you even say?”

“That they needed to heal the snake.” Harry said. Draco turned to Hermione for an explanation.

”He took Harriet to St. Mungo’s during one of your visits with Dumbledore.” She said. Draco blinked. 

“McGonagall let you leave school?” he asked, a bit awed by the idea of such a thing. He didn't even think St. Mungo’s would heal animals… He would have taken Harriet there ages ago. Usually, as a kid, if his pet was ill his parents either got him a new one or hired somebody from France to fix the problem. 

“Well,” Harry said, “She wasn't thrilled, but I pointed out you were tortured and Harriet saved you and that I was still so filled with guilt over the whole thing...she folded pretty quickly.” 

“Manipulative. Nice.” Draco said. Looks like he had been a bad influence on his friends after all. Hermione hit the back of his head. “Joking!” he defended and beamed down at Harriet. 

Now was time for the big reveal anyways. 

“We have a group present for you,” Draco said, grabbing Harry’s hand and tugging him towards the end of their dormitory. “Since you’ve been so fond of your lessons with Dumbledore…” He said and tore off Harry’s invisibility cloak Draco had nicked to hide the gift. 

“...wow,” Harry said, sounding a little baffled, “You got me a pensieve?” He asked and glanced over at Ron. Hermione rolled her eyes, smiling a bit. She walked over and pulled out a wooden box from under Ron’s bed and levitated it towards Harry. “With memories?” Harry rectified as he held up a few bottles of shimmering colors. 

“There are at least a hundred of them,” Ron said with a shake of his head, “Some were a pain to get. The top ones are of your parents,” he explained and Harry froze. “Remus and Sirius gave us most of them. Also, Hermione tracked down some other people too… like the healer that was there when you were born.”

“I wouldn’t watch the beginning of that one,” Draco informed him stoically, “The ending is cute with your parents meeting you and all… but the first part is _horrifying_.”

“Dear God, you two are hopeless,” Hermione sighed and pointed to a few others, “We also asked a few of the professors to give anything they remembered. McGonagall. Flitwick. Dumbledore.” She said, pointing to each of them respectively, “Snape even gave a couple, right?” She asked. Draco nodded. It had taken a while and Severus had been very picky about it, but he did cough up two of him and Lily. 

“The bottom ones are from us,” Ron added, “Things we thought you might want to revisit… Here, I can show you mine!” He said brightly and plucked up one of the memories to dump into the pensieve. Draco narrowed his eyes. This was a little suspicious. “It’s one of my favorites.” He added wickedly and gestured them closer.

Draco was right to be concerned. Ron had chosen a rather volatile memory. It was during their first year at Hogwarts and one of Hermione’s first attempts to get Draco interested in muggle-related things. Draco had actually referenced this particular incident in muggle studies a few years later because he very firmly did not want to be put in this position again.

“You’re making up rules - that isn’t-”

“I HAVE THE RULE BOOK, WEASLEY! HOW ARE YOU GOING TO TELL ME THAT I’M MAKING UP RULES?!” Draco yelled, shoving a glossy booklet in his face. The younger version of Ron looked at the sky for a moment before taking a long breath.

“This is Hermione’s game and _she_ says you can earn money while in Azkaban!”

“We call it jail, actually,” Harry was saying as he idly played with his metal game piece. Both Ron and Draco ignored him.

“Well it says here that you _can’t_ earn money while in Azkaban!” Draco said fiercely, shoving the instructions in his face, “Look! Can you even read? Or is that too advanced for your household?” Draco asked as Hermione bit her lip, nervously trying to intervene as Ron and Draco continued yelling.

“I guess _your_ family would know whether you can earn money in Azkaban,” Ron growled, crossing his arms. Hermione made a squeaking sound and leaned away.

“You’re just mad because you’re poor in this stupid muggle game _and_ in real life!” Draco shot back. Harry clicked his tongue before turning to Hermione.

“Why Monopoly? Couldn’t you have shown them Operation or something?” He asked her. Hermione ran a hand over her face.

“Why don’t these pieces tell us?!” Ron cried out in frustration, “What’s wrong with them? Why don’t they move?!” He asked, gesturing vaguely towards the stagnant board in between them. A few students had curiously gathered around, watching the board with expressions ranging from utter bafflement to delight.

“Yeah!” Draco nodded, “Is it broken? Let’s just buy a new one-”

“It… isn’t broken.” Hermione sighed, “The pieces just don’t move.” She asked. Ron and Draco looked at one another before both giving the board a disgusted look. “Oh my - alright, let’s find something else to do then.” Hermione grumbled. Harry perked up. 

“Does that mean I won?” He asked excitedly and all three of them turned to him to see Harry sitting with a rather large pile of fake money. Draco frowned.

“Where did you get that?”

“I won it! Remember when you landed on Pennsylvania Avenue? And Hermione landed on-”

“I saw him grab some from that pile there.” Seamus informed them from where he was sitting in an armchair a few feet away. Draco and Ron immediately gasped, launching into attacks as Harry loudly shouted back he did not, in fact, take anything. Hermione stared morosely at the fireplace.

“He cheated! Seamus saw him so that means he lost! Hermione, tell him he lost-”

“I didn’t take it!”

“Why would Seamus lie, Harry? Hermione, tell him he’s out for cheating-”

“For the record,” Draco said, interrupting their younger selves so he could look at where the older versions of them were standing, “I still think you cheated.” 

Harry spluttered.

“You are both such _sore losers_.” He grumbled, gesturing to where Draco and Ron had apparently decided to hijack the game and make their own rules. Hermione didn’t even both to stop them as Draco went about trying to change the name of the places on the board to ‘Diagon Alley’ and other familiar wizard names while Ron tried to figure out how to make the pieces into the Sorting Hat, Fluffy, and other things they were more familiar with.

“Funny coming from a cheater.” Ron told him as the memory faded, leaving them back in the dormitory. Harry scowled at him as Draco turned to lightly shove Ron. 

“ _That’s_ the memory you chose?” He asked him. Hermione at least looked amused by the selection. “One of us fighting over Monopoly?!” He asked and Ron shrugged, “What else did you choose?”

“Um, let’s see… knocking out the troll. Winning the House Cup. Winning the Quidditch Cup.” He said, tapping his lip, “The time Hermione showed you the muggle walkman thing and you screamed when music came out of it-”

_"Ron-”_

“Which one is that?” Harry asked and Draco slapped his hand away. He laughed. “Hermione, which ones did you put in?” Harry asked eagerly. Draco looked at her warily. He hoped she had better taste than bloody _Ronald._

“Let’s see,” Hermione mused, tapping her wand against her arm, “All of us meeting… including Draco’s charming introduction on the train.” She added. Draco rolled his eyes. “Oh! When you two first rode your brooms like idiots,” she mused, “Our sorting, obviously-”

“I really trusted you to come through.” Draco muttered. Hermione rolled her eyes.

“Hogsmeade trips, things like that.” She said. Draco shook his head. Then everyone turned to him. He paused. Now that he thought back on it… he maybe went in the wrong direction with this.

“I mainly chose the ones where we almost died. You know, Ron and McGonagall’s chess set, fighting that damn snake, meeting Sirius-”

“Why?” Ron asked, sounding aghast by the idea of it. Draco gave a wary sigh.

“I thought we were remembering how stupid we used to be-”

“Oh, yeah, we definitely don’t have dangerous ideas now,” Harry told him with a nod at his arm, “How’s the Dark Mark on your arm holding up?”

...fair enough. Draco did appreciate that Harry at least said the words lightly and without any sort of malice that he might usually have when speaking of Draco’s Death Eater exploits.

“Whatever,” he said and picked up a random memory, “Which one is this?” he asked and glanced at where it had been placed. “It looks like one of Sirius’.” He said and Harry plucked the vial from his grasp to pour into the pensieve. 

“My parents.” He said. His voice was reasonably contained, but Draco could hear the excitement rising. “Have you seen this one?” He asked Ron and Hermione who both shook his head. Harry looked at the swirling colors for a moment - there was a hint of hesitation when he looked back at them, but ultimately he gestured them closer. Draco smiled before walking over to lean back into the bowl.

This time, when Draco opened his eyes they were in a cottage. A woman was lying on a couch, asleep with a book falling out of her hand and auburn hair cascading over the side of the couch. Harry stared before he edged a little closer to her. Draco grimaced. She really didn’t look more than a few years older than them. Hermione and Ron were also curiously glancing around the room, taking in the decorations and photos placed among the walls. 

From behind them, a small whimpering sound came. Draco jumped. He hadn’t realized something else was in the room. He turned to see Padfoot lifting his head up before moving to nudge the woman’s hand with his snout. The woman hummed and shifted slightly.

“Lily,” Sirius said, voice quiet as he shifted back into human form, “Um, Lily? Wake up...please.” He added, sounding a bit stressed. Lily’s eyes fluttered open. Hermione gasped. 

Holy _shit_ , people weren’t kidding. Those were Harry’s eyes. From the shape to the color to the goddamn lashes. They were eerily identical. Ron blinked a few times before leaning forward to look at Harry’s face, also stunned by the revelation. They had seen Lily before, of course. Through pictures and hints of her when they checked to make sure the memories weren’t tampered. Nobody had stayed too long to get a good look at her though. It felt too personal to digest without Harry’s permission.

From the couch, Lily stretched.

“It’s time?” She yawned and then pressed her hand to her stomach. “Oh, yeah,” she decided and sat up, “It’s time. Thanks for using your Paddy sense to let me know.” She told him and got up. Sirius blinked a few times.

“Uh, should I wake James?” He asked, gesturing to where another figure was also asleep on the couch. Draco almost laughed. He hadn’t noticed him at first. Mainly because his mind must have just assumed it was Harry (even if Harry was standing next to him). The man looked strikingly similar with the same messy hair, lean figure, and even the same chin and mouth. Ron knelt down to stare.

“What the fuck?” He decided and turned to Harry, “How does anyone look so similar to another person. It’s like with Fred and George.” He said, shaking his head. Harry pursed his lips, peering over his father warily. Draco hoped he wasn’t still mulling over what he had seen in Severus’ memory last year. 

“Give him a second to rest!” Lily called back from the other room. 

Sirius frowned.

“You’re oddly calm about this,” he decided, “Are you sure? I think we should tell him.”

“If you want to, sure. Just remember that you panic when he panics,” Lily said and entered the room to throw a bag on the floor before disappearing again. Sirius scowled.

“I do not panic when he panics. Neither of us are going to _panic,_ ” He grumbled and reached over to shake James’ arm. “Hey… mate. Get up. It’s happening.” He said. There was a grumbled response. “Prongs, come _on_. It’s happening.” He said. James yawned.

“It’s happening?” He repeated sleepy, then froze. “Wait. _It’s happening?!”_ He yelped and sat up. “Oh my God. It’s happening!” He shouted and popped up in pure panic. “Lily? Lily where - _Lily it’s happening!”_ He shouted and grabbed at his hair, “Are you sure? I thought we had two more days?!” 

“Sometimes babies come early,” Lily told him, re-entering the room with another bag. “Now, calm down. We talked about this, remember? How many babies are allowed in this house?” She asked James, eyes twinkling with amusement. James, on the other hand, looked downright terrified.

“One.” He whispered. Lily nodded approvingly. 

“And who is that one baby going to be?”

“Harry.” 

“You got this,” Lily laughed. James did not look the least bit placated. “I think we’re ready. We just need-”

“ _The hospital bag!”_ James shrieked and shoved Sirius out of the way. “Shit, shit, shit - where is it? I can’t find it!” He yelled from the next room. Hermione chuckled as she nodded, glancing at Harry. He looked just as amused by his father’s theatrics while Lily remained completely at ease. Draco always did say Harry did well under pressure. It looks as though he did not get that from Potter Sr.

“I have it, James.” 

“I’m not ready to be a godfather,” Sirius whispered. Apparently, Lily had been right because it did very much appear that James’ terror was rubbing off on him. “What if he hates me, Lily? Or what if he has red hair like you and I make fun of him and then he thinks I’m mean?! Or what if he has stupid hair like James and I make fun of him and then he thinks I’m mean?!”

“He did end up with stupid hair,” Draco informed the memory version of Sirius and then turned to Ron, “Also, we now have definitive proof that Sirius makes fun of your hair too.” He added. Ron made a face. 

“As if I care-”

“Shh.” Harry interrupted, waving their words away.

“How about you don’t make fun of my son?” Lily suggested, rubbing her stomach. 

“This is too much responsibility!” Sirius yelled and turned to where James had come back with an assortment of boxes and bags. “You shouldn’t have had a kid without consulting me first! What is _wrong_ with you?!” He shouted. 

“I can’t find the hospital bag so we need to make a new one,” James said and turned to Lily, “How are you? In pain? Does it hurt? Fuck, I hope it doesn’t hurt.” He said, distressed.

“I already have the bag, James.” She repeated and shrugged, “It hurts a little bit, but it isn’t too bad yet. Sirius caught it early for me so we have lots of time before the actual pain starts.” She said. James pursed his lips. 

“...I want to be angry that you’re in pain, but the problem is that I’m pretty sure I love the thing that’s causing you pain.”

“ _Pretty_ sure?” Lily repeated, looking affronted. James scoffed.

“I don’t know this baby,” he said, crossing his arms. There was a pause. “No, that’s not true. I love this baby. He’s you and me put together. He’s going to be _brilliant_.”

“Aw,” Hermione cooed. Draco shook his head,

“It’s truly tragic how wrong he is.” He said and when Harry turned to him, grinned. “Joking.” He said lightly and bumped his shoulder, “You do have brilliant taste in people.” He informed him and Harry gave a light laugh as the chaos continued around them.

“I called Remus!” Sirius said, pulling his head out of a fireplace, “He said to listen to Lily. Lily, come on! Say something!” He said, “For the sake of your unborn child give us some direction - _where_ is the hospital bag?!” He asked. Lily sighed and held it up. “Oh, thank - why didn’t you say you had it?” Sirius grumbled and took it from her. “Come on, Prongs. It’s time for you to be a father.” He said stoically, handing him some floo powder. James frowned.

“...okay.” He said, voice high and distraught. Sirius paused to look at him before putting a hand on either side of James’ shoulders. 

“Now, you listen to me James Potter. I know you’re scared. Hell, I am too… but there is nobody - and I mean _nobody_ \- out there who will be a better dad than you. Even if I have kids I will firmly believe that. You are strong and brave and smart and kind and funny and the _best_ friend I’ve ever had. So when I say it is time for you to be a father… you better say ‘ _Hell yeah’_ because we’re going to _crush_ this!” 

James nodded eagerly, taking a long breath. Draco wasn’t sure if anyone was going to acknowledge that Sirius said ‘we’ as if he had any role in this. 

“Yeah… yeah! We are!” James agreed. Apparently not then. Sirius clapped his shoulder. 

“Now, come on, Prongs. It’s time for you to be a father.”

“HELL YEAH!” 

“Let’s do this!” Sirius yelled and both marched into the fire with their respective floo powders and disappeared in a burst of green flames. Lily watched them, looking nonplussed as she continued rubbing her stomach. She glanced down.

“You’ll get used to this,” she informed the baby bump, “You just have to promise me you’ll help me keep them from doing stupid stuff all the time. It’s a tough job, but you’ll get the hang of it.” She said fondly and picked up the hospital bag that Sirius and James had left behind. There was another burst of green before James stumbled back in. 

“Lily, I am _so_ sorry-” he greeted, grabbing the bag. From behind him Sirius also reappeared. “You are doing amazing. I would never leave you on purpose, I love you so much-”

“I know, you dork,” Lily scoffed and took some floo powder. “Are you two done?” She asked and then turned to Sirius, “You need to remember this isn’t your baby,” She said firmly. Thank God someone told him. “Keep James calm. Don’t let him freak you out.” She said firmly. Sirius gave a gasp of offense.

“Um, excuse me? This is all our baby. I’m the godfather,” he sniffed. Lily looked like she was about to reply, but gave a sharp gasp as she moved forward. Hermione jerked forward as if to catch her only to remember that this was, in fact, a memory. James seemed up to the task anyways as he worriedly steadied her.

“Oh… that’s… a contraction,” she breathed out, “Wow. Okay.” 

“ _Harry stop hurting her!”_ James shouted and then winced, “Sorry. I didn’t mean to yell. We’re good. Calm. Lily, my love, my favorite person - shut _up_ , Sirius-” he added when Sirius opened his mouth, “We’re good. Let’s go. Here.” He said, taking the bag before helping her to the chimney. “I’m going to buy you so much shit when this is over. I don’t even care if you don’t want it. I’m going to buy you flowers and chocolate and blankets and-” He continued on before they both entered the floo. 

Draco snorted as the memory began to fade. Harry looked torn between amused and empathetic towards his poor mother. 

“Your father was a dork,” Draco said, deciding to use Lily’s term in order to avoid offending the dead. “Explains a lot about you.”

“Shut up.” Harry said, though he very carefully used his wand to trap the memory back in the bottle and put it back delicately among the others. “Thank you. This is incredible.” He added softly to them. Ron shrugged. 

“It was fun getting the stuff for it,” he said and pointed to another of their memories. “I highly recommend we do that one too before calling a break.” He added. Draco sighed. Something told him he was about to get made fun of again. 

Sure enough. The memory was from their fourth year. 

“Make it stop! Hermione! _Hermione!”_ A younger Draco shrieked as he held out his arms desperately to keep balance, “ _How do you stop this?!”_ He wailed, voice rising as Harry held out his arms to steady him while Ron doubled over laughing. 

“Draco, you need to stop moving your feet-” Hermione tried, but Draco clearly had enough with the whole situation because he decided instead to launch himself at Harry in hopes he would catch him. This just sent them both tumbling to the ground.

“I hate rollerblades!” Draco yelled, “Get them _off_ of me! Your muggles are sadists!” He shouted and whacked Harry’s arm. “How could you let her _do_ this to me?” 

“You are all the worst,” Draco muttered to the current Harry, Hermione, and Ron that were laughing. 

* * *

The rest of the day consisted of Harry standing over the pensieve with the rest of them checking in every once in a while. Draco was a little convinced he might go through all of them in one day. 

“Want to watch another?” He asked when Draco came by a few hours later with a plate of food.

“After you eat, sure.” He said and held out the plate, “It’s lunch,” he added. Harry blinked, looking surprised by the announcement as he glanced down at the time. “I brought treacle tart, but I would recommend starting with real food before giving yourself a sugar rush,” he said as he handed over the plate.

Harry looked him dead in the eye and took a bite of treacle tart. 

“Voldemort may not be able to kill you, but heart failure will,” Draco informed him. Harry took another bite just to spite him. Draco had half a mind to deck him. 

“Where are Ron and Hermione?” Harry asked, licking his lips as he then decided to eat some actual food. 

“I bet Ron ten galleons that he couldn’t get Hermione to fly with him on the quidditch pitch.” Draco grinned. Hermione on a broom was hilarious in general, but add in Ron trying to get her to actually play quidditch? Beautiful. 

It was especially relieving since Lavender and Cormac had gone home for the holidays, meaning they were actually being pretty civil with one another.

“Hm,” Harry mused, “That's going to either be over in five minutes or five hours.” He said and Draco snorted. So he noticed the shameless flirting between them too for couple... eh, five or six years.

Hermione said it wasn't flirting, but Draco was pretty sure it was. In their world at least. Ron and Hermione’s relationship seemed to operate on a lot of bickering and fierce yelling if anyone else tried to bicker with the other that hadn’t been pre-approved. For example, Draco could tell Hermione that her muggle rollerblades were Hell on wheels, but when some random seventh year said something Ron nearly clocked him. 

Similarly, Hermione was fine with Draco telling Ron he was an idiot, but the second Padma said so there were wands out and Harry was desperately trying to play peacekeeper as Draco laughed in the background. 

“Okay,” Harry said, stuffing a roll of bread in his mouth, “Let’s watch that one,” He said, taking another vial. Draco shook his head. Why couldn’t he eat like a human? It really was pathetic that he felt a wave of fondness hit him at the abhorrent lack of table manners. 

“Alright,” Draco said and curiously looked at the case. It seemed as if Harry had watched most of the ones with his parents at least once by this point. The thought made him a little sad as he leaned forward to look at the new memory. 

“Aw,” Draco chuckled when the colors settled. This time, there was a very small version of Harry blabbering about nothing as Remus very seriously nodded, hanging onto every non-coherent word as if it were life or death. “You were kind of cute.” He said and glanced over, “I wonder what went wrong.” 

“Shut up.” Harry grumbled right as Remus clicked his tongue.

“Well, you see, Harry… that’s actually where most people are wrong. There is actually a distinct difference between a metamorphmagus and polyjuice potion.”

Harry gave more baby talk.

“Excellent question! Well, polyjuice potion tastes a bit like whoever you put in it. We all tasted it once as a joke. You see, your father - he’s the one with the glasses - he had this grand idea that for a day we should all go around pretending to be one another at once. So, in transfiguration there were four James...Jameses? Either way. Then in potions there were four Siriuses. In herbology there were four Peters - you see? I would say your father tasted a bit like treacle tart. Sirius tasted like champagne and sugar. Peter… well, don’t tell him I said this, but he tasted a bit odd. Perhaps like old fish? Maybe it is an acquired taste.” He mused. 

Harry babbled more.

“Me? According to Sirius I tasted like chocolate.” He mused, “We weren’t actually sure if it would work on me. Polyjuice if for human use only, you know. James wanted to try anyway. It… sort of worked. We looked more like siblings than anybody actually turning into me…” Lupin continued talking, explaining more on the effects of polyjuice potion on other creatures. 

“Why did he clarify which one your dad was?” Draco asked as a small, almost guilty look touched Harry’s lips. 

“In another memory I called Remus ‘dada’... though in fairness, it looks like I referred to them _all_ as such.” 

“That does make it a lot better.” Draco told him with a roll of his eyes. Harry pouted for a moment before looking at where Remus and Harry continued speaking very seriously about magical creatures. Eventually it faded until there was another in its place. Draco frowned. He hadn’t seen Harry put another in, but he must have.

He looked around to find - ah. This was Draco’s memory. He felt himself flush a bit as he glanced around the hospital wing. This would have been shortly after the Quirrell debacle. Draco was lying in his bed, picking at the sheets as he tried and failed to fall asleep.

“Hey… are you awake?” Harry’s whisper sounded from across the hospital wing. Draco watched as the younger version of himself hid a smile into his pillow.

“I am now.” He whispered back. 

Silence.

“I’m bored,” the eleven-year-old Harry declared and Draco rolled his eyes, “I want to sit next to you.” 

“Madam Pomprey said not to leave our - you’re a bad listener,” Draco interrupted himself as he sat up in his bed to find Harry already walking over with his blanket trailing around him. “There’s no room!” He added. Harry simply pushed him over and crawled into his hospital bed before offering him a box of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavored Beans.

“I’m sorry you got hurt,” Harry told him with a frown, “If I had realized I could hurt Quirrell sooner I would have protected you better.”

“I don’t need your _protection_!” Draco sniffed back indignantly and flicked the side of his head, “I wasn’t even hurt that badly. You’re dumb.” He grumbled before accepting some candy. Harry only shrugged before taking another bite himself.

“I wish I had someone to tell about this place,” he finally said and Draco looked at him. “My aunt and uncle would be mad if I said anything about Hogwarts. My cousin might try to beat me up.” He added, “But if I don’t tell anybody it feels like it didn’t even happen.” He explained, twisting the sheet absently.

“Your muggle family sounds so awful,” Draco sighed and settled a bit more into the bed, “You can tell me if you want.”

“But you were there for most of it.”

“So? Don’t be stupid.” He said. Harry frowned, but after a few moments reconsidered, “Start with telling me about your aunt and uncle. What did they do when you got your letter?” He prompted and a grin spread over Harry’s face.

“Well,” Harry said and sat up a bit to use his hands to gesture vaguely, “What you should know about my aunt and uncle is that they go by Mr. and Mrs. Dursley to pretty much everyone in our neighborhood… and the thing about them is they like being normal. So, Mr. and Mrs. Dursley of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious…”

“You were a dramatic storyteller.” Draco told him when they re-emerged from the pensieve. Harry smiled, shoving his hands in his pocket to stare thoughtfully at the swirling liquid still in front of him.

“You definitely had a crush on me back then,” he decided. Draco rolled his eyes. He couldn’t believe he had a crush on him now, quite frankly. Somewhere down the road his standards had lowered drastically. The worst part was that he didn’t even care. 

Even worse than _that_ was that he knew (deep, deep, deep down) that, in truth, his standards had probably only risen. 

“What do you know?” Draco asked instead. Harry scoffed.

“How are you feeling today?” He asked and Draco blinked. How was he _feeling?_

“Um, good?” He said and crossed his arms, “Much better than yesterday,” he admitted as he shook his head, “And now that Harriet is better - actually, I’m doing really good,” he decided and looked over at where his snake was sunbathing by the window. He went over to see if she was hungry, but he barely made it three steps before he felt a hand on his arm, spinning him around. He was greeted with Harry close - precariously close - much more than he had been before. His heart picked up for a moment as he realized what was happening a second before it did, the smell of spring almost drowning him. He moved forward before he could consider if it was really a good or bad decision.

For someone who claimed to be so smart, he really was a fan of dumb decisions. 

It… was tragically different. Kissing Harry, that is. Different in a good way. A revolutionary way. 

The silliest (and yet most accurate analogy) was that he was reminded of wine. 

Back when Draco was eleven and spending his very first summer at Andromeda’s house, he noticed pretty early on that Ted and Andromeda almost always had a glass of wine with dinner. His parents had the same habit. Draco suspected it was a rich people thing that had stuck with Andromeda through her disownment. 

Naturally, he wanted to be included so he informed his aunt that he usually also had wine with dinner (which was very much a lie). There had been a bit of a pause before Andromeda just… gave in. Really, he should have known better looking back on it. His aunt was hardly one to give into anything.

At any rate, she started giving him a glass at dinner too. It was good, sure. Sweet and in a variety of flavors he liked. Draco found that he couldn’t even tell it was alcoholic and would boast his tolerance to try and get himself a second glass (that was a battle he ultimately lost). It was only when he was fifteen that he learned the truth… Andromeda had been watering it down the whole time. 

Whatever. He knew his aunt was a traitor. 

She did relent and say that since he was getting involved in a war, he should be allowed to have a real glass (he watched her pour himself to be sure). When he finally had his first taste of the real thing…the difference was abysmally obvious. As it turned out, the real thing was so much better than anything he had tried previously and he knew that he would never go back to the child-version his aunt had tricked him with for years.

In a very similar way, Harry was the real thing. He was the real thing in the sense that Draco was pretty sure he could kiss a hundred more people and nothing would ever feel as real or genuine or passionate. And - much like what he found with the wine - his tolerance was much lower than he originally thought. Whatever he thought he could stand of Harry had lowered drastically. 

Even worse was that he wasn’t even that great of a kisser. He wasn't _bad **-**_ and to be fair, he only kissed three people so Draco wouldn’t have expected him to be that great, but it was just annoying that his world could be so shattered by someone who barely knew what they were doing. 

“I think,” Harry said when it ended either a second or an hour later, “That I have a new memory for the pensieve.” 

Draco just rolled his eyes and kissed him again.

* * *

"Hello, you two!" Draco said, happily sliding into an empty seat at where Lavender had practically latched onto Ron with a concerning strength. Apparently their winter break apart had been very hard. Draco resisted the urge to gag, "I'm so glad you're both here. I've been meaning to talk to you." He smiled prettily. Ron paused - eyes regarding Draco suspiciously as he let go of Lavender.

Ah, Lavender Brown.

Draco had never liked her. Well, Hermione had never liked her, which meant that Draco didn't like her. It wasn't a new thing. This girl had been sharing a dormitory with Hermione for _years_ now. Plus, it was like Lavender was built to be her antithesis. Draco remembered all too well how they had butted heads during divination when Hermione called it nonsense and Lavender insisted she was seer. Lavender was also someone who said Harry was lying to which Hermione said some... unsavory things he hadn't really expected from her.

Then Ron happened.

Boy, Lavender and Ron really brought out something _nasty_ in Hermione. Draco found is both amazing and horrifying. So far she had sent birds to attack the pair, cut Lavender's hair, and even loudly engaged in some catty girl-talk that Draco had been bewildered by for a solid ten minutes. It was wild. So, naturally, he had to be a good friend and join in on the fun, right? Besides, he had been looking forward to Ron getting a girlfriend for awhile. Finally. Vengeance.

"Me and Won-Won?" Lavender asked and Draco blinked a few times before slowly nodding. Won-Won. _Honestly_. Draco grimaced and gave a small nod.

"Well," Draco said, pouring himself a glass of juice, "You _are_ Ron's first official girlfriend," he said and turned to meet Ron's eyes with a smirk, "So, naturally, as one of his oldest friends I have to check in and see what kind of girl he's dating, right?" He asked and then piled some food from the center of the table to his plate, "Now, what are your intentions with Ron?"

" _Draco!"_ Ron hissed and Draco took a bite of eggs, raising his eyebrows.

"Hm?" He asked between chews, "You have to be careful, Ron. There are some _nasty_ girls out there. You don't want to get caught up with the wrong ones, do you? And this is the first girl you're dating. You can never been too careful." He clicked his tongue before turning to Lavender, "I think you're _lovely_ , of course. I just have to dot all my i's and cross all my t's - you understand," he dismissed.

"Oh, of course!" Lavender said, scandalized, "I would _never_ hurt my Won-Won!" She assured him eagerly. Draco put a hand over his chest.

"That is so wonderful to hear!" He said, ignoring Ron slowly putting his head into his hands, "Molly will be so excited - have you met Molly yet? Oh, you _must_ if you haven't. She'll want to get you a sweater soon. Oh! Maybe you and Ron can have _matching!"_ He said and Lavender's eyes lit up at that, "But I'm getting ahead of myself," he chuckled and grabbed a piece of toast to butter, "I've seen you two together. Very, uh, passionate." He said for a lack of a more... descriptive word. Ginny compared them to two eels... fair enough. Draco leaned in, "You are being safe, right?"

"Alright," Ron said loudly, "Thank you, Draco. We have to go-"

"I- I mean, of _course_ , well, we will be when that happens! You have nothing to worry about!"

"Why are you answering him?!" Ron yelped, face burning. Draco grinned. He loved this.

"Thank goodness. Be careful with him, alright? He bruises easily-"

"Lavender, we need to get to class," Ron said, desperately tugging on her arm. Lavender frowned, lips going into a slight pout as she looked Ron over worriedly. Draco took another bite of toast.

"How easily?"

" _Lavender!"_

"We'll talk more later," Draco promised, grinning widely at her. Lavender beamed before straightening up to skip towards class, grabbing Ron's hand for him to follow. Draco watched in amusement as he detached himself from her to whisper something. Lavender frowned, but nodded and headed off towards her classroom without him. Ron turned.

"You know why I'm doing this to you, right?" Draco asked, taking another bite of his breakfast. Ron only closed his eyes and gave the smallest of nods, "Though, I feel as though I should clarify something," he added, thinking absently of Hermione, "I hate her."

" _Draco_."

"Okay, look, you can date whoever you want. I'll be nice to her. Pinky promise," he said and Ron glared, "I'm going to have a lot of fun lecturing both of you on safe sex," he snorted and then gave Ron a warning look, "But if you really do sleep with her I might kick your ass." He added. Ron threw up his hands.

"That's none of your business!"

"I know, but..." He looked in the direction of Lavender with a slight shake of his head, "The girl needed more details on how easily you bruise. I'm concerned for your safety. Besides, I just have a feeling that you might... regret it. Call it a friend instinct." He said and then waved his hands, "Either way, it doesn't matter. I plan on befriending her so that we can both make fun of you."

"You just said you hated her."

"You can make friends with people you hate," Draco said sweetly, "I did it with you."

Ron closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths.

"You're a monster," he finally said and when Draco only shrugged, reached over to try and hit him.

" _Hey-_ _"_

"I'm writing Andromeda to tell her you kicked a house elf!"

"I didn't even do - _you better fucking not!"_

* * *

There were pros and cons to Draco’s bad decision making. 

Pros: He got to kiss Harry a lot. 

Cons: This made literally everything else a lot more complicated. 

It also was a bit of a problem with half the school trying to slip Harry a love potion every other class. Hermione and Draco had gotten annoyingly good at spotting it. Unfortunately, this mainly fell to Draco now since the Christmas miracle of Hermione and Ron getting along had finally worn off. 

Lavender returned, tragically, and went about her quest to suck Ron’s face clean off. Hermione went about her quest to not care… Harry and Draco went about their quest to not tip their friends off to the fact that, well, _you know_. 

At least McLaggen continued to stay far, far, _far_ away from Hermione. 

However, as fun as everything was going… Dumbledore and Voldemort were there to remind him there was a ticking clock.

“I know how to do it,” Draco was saying, biting his lip in deep thought, “The vanishing cabinet would work, but…” He sighed and looked at Harry, “You see the problem? I don’t quite fancy bringing a bunch of Death Eaters into Hogwarts.”

His mother said this mission was a punishment for his father. Bellatrix said it was a way to redeem himself in the eyes of their master. Draco insisted it was some bullshit.

“What did Dumbledore say about this?” Hermione asked from where she was sitting across from him in the Room of Requirement. Ron was glaring at her angrily as he bit into a biscuit over whatever they had recently been fighting about. Draco grimaced. Harry was laying with his head in Draco’s lap so he could absently run his fingers through his hair as Harry went about mulling over Draco’s words.

In hindsight, it probably wasn’t very subtle, but Hermione and Ron didn’t seem to notice anything amiss. Maybe they thought Draco had finally given into all their touchy, gross ways to show affection. 

...maybe Draco _had_ given in. Horrifying. 

“It’s complicated,” Draco said, rubbing his temple, “If it is revealed that Dumbledore knows any of this it outs either Severus or myself as a double agent…” he trailed off, brows furrowing. Wait. He paused to consider, “I think… I might have an idea…” He said slowly, voice softening. Could that work? Dumbledore would say it was too risky. That in the grand scheme of things it only fixed a few problems...

And yet, Draco found himself more willing to protect the students than anything else. It wasn’t fair. Hogwarts was supposed to remain safe. How could he, in good conscience, put their lives as risk? Or what of the first and second years? Assuming they won this war and everyone lived… their memories of the school would be forever tainted.

“An idea?” Ron repeated. Draco nodded before gently nudging Harry off of him, “Draco?”

“I need to talk to Severus,” he said and Harry frowned, grabbing his wrist a bit as he went to leave, “I’ll be back.” He told him and Harry let go a bit uncertaintly as Draco leaned down to grab his bag, "I'll tell you later - all of you," he added to the others before slipping out the door.

The trek to Snape’s office was longer than usual. Mainly because he was starting to sort out the components of his plan. It was stupidly reckless and dumb… but it could work. It could work and give them a massive upperhand.

“Curfew was an hour ago,” Severus greeted and Draco shut the door with a loud clang before flicking up wards and silencing charms around them, “What’s wrong?” He asked sharply and Draco pulled up a chair to sit. 

“So, morally speaking, I've come to the conclusion that you operate more out of guilt than anything else, but if I told you that I found a way to keep Death Eaters out of this school without Voldemort killing me… would you take it?” He asked. Severus blinked a few times.

“What a thrilling opening,” he said dryly, “Something tells me I am not going to enjoy what you’re about to tell me.” 

Draco smiled.

In the end, Severus had surprisingly _agreed_ given that Draco organized it all correctly. He was a little nervous about that part. He was going to have to trust a lot of people to be on his side… at some point or another unbreakable vows and other promises could only be relied on so much.

“So,” Draco said the next day as he bit his lip, wringing his hands together, “I would understand if you didn’t want to do it-”

“What are you talking about?” Tristam asked, shaking his head, “Of course we’re going to do it.” He said. Draco paused. Really? Just like that? “I mean, you’ll have to show us how to make polyjuice potion correctly… and we’ll need to figure out how exactly we’re going to get the hair, but those are minor details, right?” He asked. Sadie shrugged from beside him.

“Um - sure, I mean… yeah.” Draco said, “You… both realize how dangerous this is, right? And, well, you know about Theo now so if you don't trust me-”

“What are we supposed to do, Draco? Let a bunch of people die?” Sadie asked, raising an eyebrow. “I mean, what did Dumbledore say?”

Ooh. Yeah. _That_.

“Dumbledore doesn’t exactly… know…” Draco said and both stared at him. “I don’t want him involved in this. I know he’s going to find out anyways, but the last thing I want is him trying to manipulate anything else. I need to be the puppet master for once.” Draco said, “If I don’t know everything that’s going on then I can’t control everything.” He explained and hesitated, “Is that a deal breaker?” 

Tristam and Sadie exchanged glances and then shook their heads.

“I mean, Dumbledore has never been a favorite of mine. Fuck him, for all I care. You’re the boss, Draco.” Sadie said and brought out her wand, “Just tell us how to get this show started.” 

Ten points to Slytherin.

* * *

Listen, they weren't... Harry and Draco weren't hiding anything. Not really.

Hermione, of course, would be completely on board once she found out. Ron would... well, they weren't going to worry about Ron at the moment. He might have a small heart attack, but Draco was certain he would recover. After all, he couldn't be annoyed with their love interests if their love interests were each other, right? Draco liked to think so.

The point was that Harry and Draco just wanted some time to... exist. You know, together. Without their friends giving any thoughts or opinions or questions about their relationship. God forbid if bloody Slughorn or anyone else found out.

So, yeah. They weren't hiding anything. Not really. It was just sneaking around to maintain balance... which was a little fun. Draco definitely had learned to appreciate the many advantages Harry's invisibility cloak brought them. However, uh... much like most things in life, well, these types of scenarios were short-lived.

"Oh, _really?"_

And by 'short-lived' he meant that him and Harry had maybe a week together tops before they were found out.

"...hi, Hermione." Draco said and glanced over at where Harry still hadn't quite figured out they had been caught. Draco waited.

"Hey, 'mione," he yawned and then looked down at his hand (which was still intertwined with Draco's).

Three... two... one...

" _Shit,_ " he muttered and jerked his hand away, hiding it behind his back as if Hermione hadn't been staring them down for the past thirty seconds. There was an awkward pause where Hermione just stood in their dormitory with her arms crossed as Harry looked literally everywhere, but her. After a couple minutes of silence, Draco decided he would break the tension.

"I mean," he said finally, "You had to have guessed, right?"

"Did you think we weren't aware that you were both in that broom closet during Slughorn's party?" She asked and Harry's mouth fell open.

"Nothing _happened_ ," he told her, scandalized. Draco snorted and when Hermione tilted her head at him, nodded.

"Yeah, nothing happened," he agreed, "Well, nothing happened that particular night. Actually," he said, shaking his head... because that wasn't technically correct, "Harry said he liked me that night so I guess it wasn't _nothing-"_

"You said you liked me too." Harry frowned. Draco waved it away. That was much less relevant.

"And why did I not know of this?" Hermione asked. Draco bit his lip a little guiltily. She wasn't even looking at Harry. He had no doubt that Hermione had expected Harry to wait a week before relaying any news about... well, most things. However, Draco and Hermione usually told one another information seconds after it happened. He gave her a weak smile.

Truthfully... it felt a little cruel to let her know his relationship was taking off when Ron was _still_ sucking Lavender's face off. Perhaps she read this in his eyes because her mouth dropped indignantly for a moment before giving a small huff.

"Sorry." He said, sounding small.

"Oh, I - Draco, it's _fine,"_ she grumbled and shook her head, "I'm happy for you both. Just don't go off getting distracted before N.E.W.Ts next year." She told him with narrowed eyes.

"You're talking to Draco, right?"

"Both of you!"

"Mainly me though," Draco muttered back and Hermione threw up her hands. Draco backtracked, "Though if you did put in some more effort-"

"You know I won't."

"Alright, I've done my best," Draco said and turned back to Hermione, "We're lucky he's pretty and can't die." He told her. Harry snorted, "Do you want me to tell you everything when we go to Hogsmeade later?" He asked and Hermione shot him an amused look before nodding. Harry frowned.

"We're going to Hogsmeade?"

"Me and her are. You're not invited." He added and Harry spluttered, "What? Sometimes we need time without you and Ron discussing nonsense!" He said and then paused. Wait. Did this mean they had to tell Ron? Oh, God. If Hermione knew then they couldn't just leave Ron out. Harry seemed to come to the conclusion seconds after he did because he groaned.

"You should just get it over with," Hermione advised them wisely - because she somehow knew their minds as well, "I don't think he'll react quite as adversely as you think he might." She said. Draco snorted. Yeah. Right. Sure.

This was put to the test exactly two hours later.

"So, right," Draco began as they stood in front of Ron in an otherwise empty common room, "Don't be a prick about it, _but_ we did start dating-"

"Very recently!" Harry added as he held up both hands.

"Yeah, super recently. And, look, things aren't going to really change."

"No! Exactly, nothing is changing and-"

"Wait," Ron said and held up a hand from where he was sitting in an armchair, "Shut up. Both of you just... shut up." He said and Draco bit his lip as he pointed between them. "This - this is happening?" He asked. Harry and Draco both glanced at one another warily before nodding. "No, I need verbal confirmation. Are you dating?"

"Yes," Harry said cautiously, "Look, Ron-"

"Shh..." He said and closed his eyes, "Shh. Just... silence." He whispered and took a long breath, "I... am so... _fucking_... relieved..." He managed. Draco tilted his head. He was what now? Harry blinked a few times, "Do have have _any_ idea -? Fuck. It's over! It's finally over!" He shouted at the ceiling, a bit hysterically. Huh. This was confusing and a little bit scary, "I thought I was going to die first. For the love of Merlin. Finally. Oh my God. I need to sit down. I am sitting down. I just - it's been so long. I..." He said and buried his face in his hands.

"Uh, mate? You okay?"

"Are you _crying?"_ Draco asked incredulously.

"SIX BLOODY YEARS!" Ron shrieked so loudly that Harry almost tripped backwards. Draco reached out to steady him, "I've had to deal with this! Six! Look, I know that maybe the first two or three don't really count, but the amount of bullshit was worth a good ten years. Fucking Hell, you two. I thought I was having a stroke," he muttered, "Ron, he's spending so much time with Theo!" He mimicked, "He's always with Neville! Why does he like Zabini? Ron, I haven't been the center of Draco's world in ten minutes! Why is he doing this to me?" He said and Harry spluttered for a moment, "And I literally thought it was going to take you another two years to figure out you like boys. Christ. No, Harry - it's _not_ normal for straight people to check out their mate's arse when he walks away!"

"I - you didn't-" Harry choked out, going bright red as Draco turned to him with a raised eyebrow, "I didn't even - he's being dramatic. It wasn't even - I just happened to, um, you just - I happened to look down and, uh-"

"And _you,"_ Ron shouted, saving Harry from having to answer (though Draco was rather interested in hearing more about that) by turning to Draco, "Fuck _you_. Zacharias Smith? _Zacharias_ _Smith?"_ He said, voice going up three octaves, "You made me suffer through Zacharias _fucking_ Smith before realizing that maybe - just _maybe -_ you liked Harry? What the fuck, Draco? I put up with Theo. I put up with Theo because I though 'well, at least they look alike. Maybe he is realizing he has a type' and then you went off-script and decided give me a bloody aneurysm!"

"Ron-"

"I AM NOT DONE YET!" He shouted and Draco held up his hands immediately, "And your incessant, endless, _bloody_ fighting. For the love of _Merlin_. I wanted to jump out of the window. Oh _no,_ we have all these _feelings_ about one another that we don't know how to deal with. Let's just shout at one another because that solves everything! I almost would rather you start snogging so I didn't have to listen to another word of you two being idiots. God. Fuck. I'm finally free." He said and threw up his hands, collapsing on the chair behind him with long breaths.

"...are you done now?" Draco asked after a couple moments of silence passed. Ron cracked an eye open at him and wrinkled his nose, "Um, I'm glad you're onboard-"

"No, fuck you," Ron said sitting up and Draco groaned. What _now?_ "Just so we're clear, this is finished." He added. Harry tilted his head.

"What do you mean? You _don't_ want us together?"

"I mean that this back-and-forth shit is _finished_ ," Ron said firmly, "No more. You're dating. It's done. As far as I'm concerned you're married and there will be no divorce." He said firmly. Draco scoffed. "Done. Married. Bam. I don't have to worry about the fallout if you break-up. You know what? Let's go through the drama you two will inevitably have right now." He said and sat up, "Oh, no! War! Draco is a Death Eater and Harry is the poster boy for the light side! How are we going to make this work? I'll tell you how. You're going to be adults about it. You're going to occasionally sneak out and visit one another once and awhile. You're going to worry over one another. Then we're going to kill Voldemort and it's going to be a great reconciliation. There. Done. Next argument. Oh, no! I'm not good enough for him. I swear to God if either if you say that shit to my face I'm going to clock you. Next argument. Oh, no! I have unresolved issues with my ex. No fucking don't. You're scared of commitment and can't deal with mistakes you've made in the past. Get over it. Next argument-"

"Alright," Harry interrupted loudly, "We got it from here. Thanks, Ron. We, er, won't... break up." He said with a subtle shrug. Draco returned it. Yeah, he had no complaints there.

"Good." Ron said and stood up, "I'm going to Hogsmeade. I need a few butterbeers." He grumbled and with that marched out. Draco and Harry turned to the other for a few seconds.

"So, like," Draco began, "Are we just... not going to point out he's been in love with Hermione for years?"

"She likes him back, right?"

"Definitely, dear God."

"So," Harry said with a nod, "Technically, we've been dealing with their shit much longer then they've been dealing with ours. That makes us the winners in this scenario, right?" He asked. Draco grinned.

"Fuck yeah, it does." He said and Harry raised his hand for a high-five. "We need a mental breakdown for when they start dating."

"You want to coordinate?" Harry snorted, "I can just be shouting about how long we've waited while you cry in the background."

"I'm so happy I'm dating you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Draco & Harry: *Kiss*  
> Draco: It is time to internally monologue about my childhood
> 
> Also, shoutout to Ron. He's the real MVP of this story.
> 
> Sorry about Winston... I felt bad when I saw how relieved everyone was that he was okay. Technically, Draco didn't kill him though? That's sorta a bonus? Listen. We snuck in some Mauraders content. That evens it out lol. Also, Snape 100% gave a memory of Lily DEMOLISHING James during DADA class bc 1) he's petty and hates James and 2) it is what Lily would have wanted her son to know.


	15. Year Six (In Which the Half-Blood Prince Returns and Draco Wins a Game of Chess)

“She has lovely eyes, doesn’t she? The most lovely…”

Draco was going to _kill_ Romilda Vane. Kill her. To death. To bloody _death_. Draco had killed people at this point. He was beginning to be able to do it fairly well. The next time Romilda ended up drugging _his_ friends would most certainly be her last.

“Come on. She’s meeting us at Slughorn’s.” Harry coaxed Ron. Draco had wanted to draw up an antidote himself, but Harry just _had_ to go to Slughorn in an attempt to start wooing the professor over for that bloody memory of his.

“I bet I could make a better antidote…” He murmured and Harry gave a low hum.

“Maybe,” he admitted, “He really is a talented potioneer too, you know.” He said. Draco shrugged. He supposed Slughorn had some talent. Maybe he could aid him in his next quest. He and Neville had decided after perfecting their eyesight potion (George wrote with a passionate argument to name it Madeye Moody’s Marvelous Eye Serum, but Draco decided he would rather die than agree to that) they would move onto figuring out how to create a potion to help with injuries created by dark magic. Sirius had happily agreed to be their test subject with his scars (much to Harry’s horror). Draco stuck by his theory that dark magic might actually be the solution to some of it, but wasn’t sure he should be cluing the professors into that.

The _point_ was that Draco wouldn’t mind having some insight if Slughorn would refrain from being… you know. Himself.

“She’s just beautiful, isn’t she? Beautiful,” Ron hummed, “You think so Draco, right?”

“I’m gay.” He deadpanned. Ron frowned. Harry snorted, turning them down another hallway.

“But you can still see that she’s beautiful, right?” Ron asked. Draco glanced over at him.

“I suppose I just think that you’re _more_ beautiful,” he said lightly. Usually people under the influence of love potions became volatile if the subject of their desire was offended. Draco was a little curious about what would happen if he took this route. Ron blinked a few times. 

“Than _Romilda?”_ He gasped, “Me? No.” He spluttered. Draco laughed. “It isn’t funny, Draco! She’s amazing…” He said. 

Amazingly dead was what she would be. 

Draco continued his grumbling right up until they got to Slughorn’s office.

“I don’t see why the pair of you couldn’t have whipped something up yourself,” Slughorn said as he waddled about the office. Draco turned to stare at Harry. “Given both of your talents-”

“I thought this particular case might need a more, um, practiced hand.” Harry said as Ron gave a sad sigh.

“She’ll never love me back, will she? I’m not good enough for her.” 

Slughorn stared at him for a moment before giving a small hum of understanding. Draco rolled his eyes. Practiced hand. Whatever. 

“How can anyone even enjoy this?” Draco asked, a bit disgusted, “If someone walked around doting over me like this I would stun them.” He said and Ron straightened up, frowning.

“Romilda doesn’t like that? I didn’t mean to upset her!” He said, absolutely scandalized. Draco gestured to Ron in order to prove his point, “I should apologize-”

“Well, for a particularly skilled potioneer, sometimes the effects translate to how the love is best received. I would say Miss. Vane either very much likes this type of affection or is perhaps not very adept in the craft.” Slughorn told him.

“So if someone is ever suddenly very mean to you, I’ll know you’ve given them a love potion.” Harry said. Draco turned to him, mouth dropping a bit in betrayal. “I’m _kidding_ … though, there has been a pattern.” He murmured.

“Ah, young love,” Slughorn chuckled, handing over a vial to Ron, “Always so full of passion and… confusion.” He said, giving both Harry and Draco a side-eye. Draco glared at him in return. As brilliant as Slughorn might be, Draco did not appreciate being used as entertainment.

Ron ended up being fine. Harry didn’t get his ever-so-important memory either, which frustrated Draco a smidge more. 

Needless to say… Draco was still set on murdering this stupid Romilda Vane who had caused all of this. Harry seemed pretty casual about having been almost the victim of a love potion himself. He didn’t even seem bothered when they ran across her in the library a few days later. He could see her peeking around the corner, eyes disappointed as she gave them nervous smiles. 

God, he hated this girl.

Draco glowered at her, teeth grinding slightly as he continued to stare her down until she had all but fled the room. Harry cleared his throat.

“She’s a monster,” Draco decided and watched as Harry blinked a few times before giving a questioning hum, “Forget banning love potions from school, that shit should be illegal.” He said and winced when his quill snapped in half. 

“Illegal?”

“Yes, illegal! The fact Slughorn even taught us how to brew one is actually kind of upsetting,” Draco seethed, realizing how true the words were as he said them, “It’s creepy! You’re taking away someone’s inhibitions, their free will, their ability to think clearly - I don’t see how it’s all that different from the imperius curse.” He sniffed, pulling out a new quill. “Plus, it’s rather rapey, isn’t it? There’s no real consent when you’re under the influence of something like that.” He said and then hit the table, making Harry jump, “Plus we _know_ what happens when a child is made under the influence of a love potion! That’s another reason to make it illegal - to keep there from being other Voldemorts out there.” He added fiercely. “She should be in Azkaban - YOU SHOULD BE IN AZKABAN!” Draco yelled when he saw Romilda peer back around the corner, “I’m going to break her neck-”

“Alright,” Harry said hastily and tapped the table to regain his attention, “I didn’t get dosed with a love potion. Ron is acting like himself. It’s fine.” He reminded him. Draco sniffed.

‘Acting like himself’ again was one way to put poor Ron’s predicament. Rumor had it that Lavender Brown, upon realizing Ron had been spiked with love potion, was _pissed_. Why? Because she thought their love was strong enough that he should have _overcame it_. Bloody nutcase.

“Yeah, but it’s the principle of the matter,” he grumbled and gave Harry an apologetic look, “Besides, you aren’t always the most, uh, observant,” He told him and Harry’s mouth dropped, “I just worry that I might turn my back and find you suddenly over the moon about some random first-year girl. Wait. That’s another reason love potions should be illegal. When you bring age into it then the law can get really fuzzy-”

“Draco.” Harry said and grabbed his arm. He opened his mouth as if he had every intention of reminding Draco that he was overreacting… and then possibly realized that Draco would just lecture him on why he wasn’t overreacting because he shook his head instead, “Do you want to write an appeal to the ministry again?” He asked. 

‘Again’ because it wasn’t the first time Draco had demanded a law change since starting Hogwarts. The first time was when they were first-years and Draco was adamantly campaigning against teaching eleven-year-olds ‘alohomora’ because he thought it was irresponsible to show them how to break into places at such a young age. Hermione was indignant about the idea of withholding knowledge, but Draco felt as though his point was proven when they managed to get that super important, very well-guarded stone as a bunch of pre-teens. 

“Aw, you know me,” Draco said and Harry gave a slight huff at that, “I have to iron some of the last pieces of my plan though…” He mused, tapping his fingers on the table thoughtfully. Harry hummed. For once, Harry was fully onboard with Draco's plan. He had been a little concerned that he might not go for it, but overall... he seemed pretty pleased.

Which was actually kind of weird. Draco may not like Dumbledore, but Harry did. It seemed very...out of character for him to be so chipper about the man condemned the death over a cursed hand. Maybe he had gotten over it? Perhaps he already mourned over the summer. 

“Need any help?” Harry asked and Draco considered.

“Maybe…” he mused and mulled over his last conversation with Severus as he looked over his shoulder. They shouldn’t talk here. “I need to talk to McGonagall. Want to come with?” He asked. Harry shoved his homework away as an answer. Draco snorted. “I knew I could count on you.” He said and then leaned in slightly, “Which reminds me… what sort of things do you think would make a good portkey?”

* * *

Draco truly, utterly, completely and indefinitely adored Harry. He did. Really. He promised. He swore on Salazar. He would face Voldemort himself for him.

Listen. That didn't mean that - you know - from time to time Draco didn't want to kick his ass.

Relationships had dualities. Sometimes he wanted to kiss Harry. Other times he wanted to throttle him. It really just depended on the hour.

"What do you mean he _still_ doesn't know? Have you seen the book?" Draco asked, banging his head against the table. He was in library (again) with hopes to actually get some work done this time... though that seemed unlikely now given that the revelation had rendered his work completely forgotten as Hermione grimaced at him. When he met her eyes she solemnly shook her head. "For the - it's Severus, Hermione. The whole thing is in his handwriting, I honestly don't know how he hasn't figured it out." He said.

Hermione blinked a few times.

"Snape is a half-blood?" She asked. Draco shrugged. He didn't know too much about Severus' upbringing, quite honestly. Snape wasn't a pureblood name so he had figured his father was a muggle.

"My father once said his mother was Eileen Prince," he said and Hermione gave him a questioning look, "Prince is another pureblood family. An important one. She was the last descendant so people were pretty pissed when she married a muggle who..." He hesitated.

"Who what?" Hermione asked. Draco pursed his lips. He wasn't sure how much of this information was necessary to give. Especially since it was so personal to his godfather. Hermione waited.

"Well," Draco finally said, relenting slightly. If he could trust anyone it would have to be Hermione, "There were... rumors that the muggle she had chosen was... a bit... temperamental," he decided, "Which was a slap in the face for everyone. The fact she allowed herself to be with a muggle is upsetting enough to purebloods, but a muggle who dared to raise a hand to a witch?" He shook his head, "People were disgusted. My father said even if she had asked for help nobody would have ever given it to her."

"That's awful," Hermione said, brows creasing together. Draco nodded. He didn't know much more than that. He got the feeling Severus might have been at the end of his father's 'temperaments' as well, but it wasn't something he had ever dared to ask about. Offhandedly, he wondered if it was something Sirius might be helpful with... not that the two would ever have an emotionally connected relationship, but... well. It didn't matter now, he supposed.

"It probably is something that served him well as a Death Eater," Draco said, "He has more reason than most to hate muggles." He said and shook his head, "What's the book even matter now? We have other things to figure out." He said. Hermione pursed her lips.

"Harry found a spell in there he mentioned. He said it was supposed to be for enemies," she said. Draco frowned. He wasn't sure what he thought of that. "He hasn't used it yet, but... I don't know, Draco. It makes me so nervous." She mumbled. "Maybe if he knows it's Snape then he'll just ask what it does." She said warily. Draco nodded. If Harry didn't ask then maybe he would. Draco wouldn't be surprised if Severus already knew his book had been in use. Harry hadn't really been discreet.

"What's it called?"

"Sectumsempra." Hermione said, pushing her wand away from her as she said it. Draco frowned, "It... Snape invented the spell so I'm assuming there's some sort of logic to the name. Sect could be sectum or to cut."

"Semper could be the last part," Draco told her with a shrug, "It means 'always' - but I'm not sure what kind of spell that would be. Always cutting? To cut always?" He frowned and shook his head, "I don't see how that would be much different than a severing charm."

"It could be a more serious version of it," Hermione said and tapped her fingers against the table with a frown, "It said it was for enemies so I doubt it is used for cutting cloth." She pointed out. Draco shrugged.

"I see why you're worried, but honestly, Hermione. Who would Harry even use that against? Voldemort? I wouldn't be too concerned about it. He wouldn't just go throwing that around at anyone. He isn't like that." He told her. Hermione pursed her lips.

"He used levicorpus on Ron."

"Yeah, but was that really so much of a risk?" He asked. Hermione's mouth dropped, "Oh, come _on_. Hermione, if you want to talk about latin roots then that one is fairly obvious. I'm sure he knew that. Plus, it didn't say 'for enemies' next to it." He said. Hermione pinned him with a long look. "It was a bit irresponsible," Draco admitted, "But I still don't think he would go around using dangerous magic for no reason. If he uses it against a Death Eater and it blows up - who cares?"

" _You're_ a Death Eater."

"I don't think Harry is going to use that on me," Draco said with a chuckle. "He's never even raised his wand at me before. Unless you count dueling or DA stuff." He mused. Even at their worst moments - when Harry and Draco's tempers were explosive and uncontrollable - Draco couldn't ever remember them using magic against the other. Hermione pursed her lips.

"It could be an accident," she pointed out, "You have a mask on, Draco. He might not-"

"You really have such little faith in him."

"No!" Hermione gasped, "No, I - he would _never_ hurt you. Never. Not on purpose. I just... I worry. You know, I worry." She said, reaching out to grab his arm, "I worry about him going off and being reckless and I worry the same for you." She said, squeezing tightly. Draco returned it. Right. It wasn't quite fair to ask Hermione to blindly follow them... between Harry and Ron (and, sure, him too... sometimes) they did make really bad decisions. He couldn't quite blame her for being concerned. "Besides, you... well, you do coddle him a bit." Hermione added under her breath.

Draco dropped his quill.

" _Excuse me?"_

Hermione shrugged.

"You take that back!" He whispered when Madam Pince went by with a pointed gaze to where they were talking, "I do not coddle anyone! You coddle both Ron and Harry!" He added, ignoring Hermione's scoff of disbelief, "It's _true!_ You always do their homework and let them cheat off you-"

"That's not true! I only let that happen on occasion when they wear me down," Hermione said, pointing a finger at him, "But you need to listen to yourself! Harry has a strange book with spells we don't know and you're letting it slide. Probably because you're all soft now that you two are dating."

"I am not _soft_. I am a hardened Death Eater and spy, thank-you-very-much."

A thump interrupted them as Harry himself appeared with three different books and a wild look in his eyes. They both turned to him.

"That herbology assignment is due today," he said... somehow sounding the same level of distressed he was when Voldemort returned, "I haven't started. Can you two help me?" He asked, sitting down to open one of the books to a random page and furiously began scribbling. Hermione and Draco looked at one another. "Hermione? Draco?"

"I can't help you." Hermione began as Draco answered at the same time.

"Nope. Can't do it."

"Wha-? _Why?"_ Harry asked, voice rising slightly, "I didn't mean to forget! I just have quidditch practices to plan now and other homework and now the war - please? Just this once?" He asked, giving a truly pathetic look that would normally have Draco giving in. He shook his head resolutely.

"Hermione says I coddle you too much. Sorry."

"But-"

"And Draco says I coddle both you and Ron too much," Hermione added, "So, I can't help you either." She informed him and then turned back to her own work. Harry looked between them both - eyes flicking back and forth rapidly before making a high-pitched noise of distress. Draco patted his arm and went back to his writing his letter to Andromeda.

"You - but-" Harry tried and then threw down his quill, "Has anyone considered that sometimes I need to be coddled?!" He asked, a bit desperately. Draco snorted, "Has anyone considered that?! I'm under quite a bit of stress, you know!" He added, a bit hysterically. Hermione looked him dead in the eyes before snapping her book closed and getting up. Harry gave a betrayed splutter as she made her way to where Ron had been grimacing by the entrance - clearly torn between wanting to enter and not wanting to be sucked into doing work. "Draco?" Harry asked, turning to him again.

...damnit.

"Don't you dare tell Hermione," he said and grabbed Harry's parchment.

* * *

“It took me a long time to figure out how to get you both here discreetly, so please don’t ruin this by freaking out.” Draco greeted as he sat down in the empty classroom.

It was strange… seeing Narcissa and Andromeda side-by-side. There was a pause where they both seemed shocked that the other had come before unanimously smoothing out their expressions and turning to Draco. 

“Is there a reason for this?” His mother asked coolly, fingers folding together gracefully. Andromeda pursed her lips in response, giving Narcissa a slight glower before turning back to give Draco an accusatory glare.

“As you both know, the Dark Lord has asked me to find a way to get Death Eaters into Hogwarts. It’s important I make sure I have his trust without revealing where my loyalties lie-”

“And where do your loyalties lie, Draco?” His mother cut him off, “You’ve been difficult to read lately. Perhaps you are simply establishing yourself with either side to plead with the winner.” She told him. There was no judgement in her tone - in fact, he caught a hint of hope there. Perhaps she had been praying Draco found more self-preservation recently. Andromeda laughed.

“He’s difficult to read because you didn’t raise him,” she muttered. Narcissa tensed. Right. This wasn’t going to go as well as he had hoped. 

“You always did do poorly in arithmetic,” Narcissa responded coolly, “Eleven is larger than five, Andromeda.” She said and Draco internally winced. Ah. That wasn’t going to go over well. He considered intervening for a moment, but… he figured it was best to not try his luck with Andromeda. “And let’s not be overly kind here. He spent more time at school than with you.”

Oh… no…

Andromeda smiled. Draco took a subtle step back.

“Don’t be too kind to yourself, either. He spent more time with tutors in your manor than he ever did with you,” Andromeda said simply and tilted her head at her, “And don’t think I don’t know your games, Cissa. I asked you to come with me once. You wouldn’t do it. You chose Lucius over your own freedom. Then when the opportunity arose, you sent your son to live the life you regretted not having.” She said and shook her head, “So let’s not fight when we both know there’s already a winner.” 

Draco looked down. The words were said way too calmly. Almost as if citing a fact from a book than a revelation. Andromeda had asked his mother to go with her? Draco wondered, not for the first time, what their relationship had once been.

“I don’t regret it,” Narcissa finally said, “I love my family far too much for that.”

“Given that your husband is in Azkaban and your son lives in my home… yes, I can see that.”

“I need your help.” Draco broke in before it could continue. They both turned to him. While the words had been pretty tame (all things considered), the tension crackling between them was anything but. Andromeda nodded for him to continue. “When I was little you used to tell me about the Deathly Hallows,” Draco began, nodding at his mother. Narcissa frowned.

“The Peverell brothers, yes.” She said and furrowed her brow, “What of it?”

“What are the chances that the story is real?” He asked and Andromeda frowned, taking a seat in one of the desks to study him intently. Narcissa remained standing, frozen like a sculpture of some sort as she seemed to consider with silent eyes. “Is it real enough that Voldemort would believe it?”

“Bella.” Andromeda said quietly. That made him pause.

“What?” He asked, “What about Bella?”

Narcissa and Andromeda glanced warily at one another. 

“The Dark Lord grew up muggle,” Narcissa said slowly, “He is unaware of all of the Deathly Hallows from that story. However, he does know of the Elder Wand.” She said. Draco frowned. That was good news, probably. It at least meant he wasn’t out to find a way to conquer death completely. “Bellatrix would have told him about the wand.”

“She is a bit of an Elder Wand herself,” Andromeda murmured. Narcissa gave her a sharp look.

“And one could say you hid away under an invisibility cloak most of your life.” She snapped right back. Draco cleared his throat, “What does this matter?”

He was missing something. What was he missing? Voldemort was after the Elder Wand. Fine. Completely fine. Draco would have to beat him to it, somehow. He would need to figure out who had it and -

Draco paused. 

No. No _way_. It wouldn’t…? But maybe? He would never be such a damn fool. Draco’s mind seemed to whirl through the possibilities in his head before looking back up at his mother. Then he turned to Andromeda.

“I’ve already asked and taken so much for you… I don’t want to ask for anymore favors,” Draco told her, a bit hesitant. Andromeda gave a small smile.

“You haven’t taken anything, Draco. Ask away.” She said and Draco bit his tongue. He couldn’t stand the thought of putting her or Ted in danger… but he couldn’t think of anybody else he trusted more.

“I’m planning on moving students out of Hogwarts. Not just Slytherins, but… a lot of the young ones. I want to move them out of here before I bring the Death Eaters in,” he explained. Andromeda nodded, “Theo left your safehouse so I’m not sure if that’s the best place for them. I don’t know where his loyalties lie now,” he admitted, “But I want the kids either in Beauxbatons or Durmstrang. I have people there that can help keep them safe,” he explained. “They can also help you set up a new safehouse for the rest of the Slytherins.” He told her.

Andromeda considered for a moment before nodding.

“I can do that,” she said and tugged at the end of her hair thoughtfully, “You’re going to need to figure out how many kids and what we’re going to tell their families.” She warned. Draco thought back to Winston and nodded solemnly. He turned to his mother.

“Theodore Nott,” he said and ignored his mother raising an eyebrow, “I need to find him.” 

“Why?”

“I can’t explain everything,” he said, “The last time he spoke to me he mentioned the Hallows. That one might be at Hogwarts. I might need his help,” Draco admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. He kind of doubted Theo wanted to help him, but he had to try. “Do you think you can figure out if the Notts know where he is?”

Draco wasn’t sure how much of a chance there was that Theo kept in contact with his parents, but it was really the only lead he had. Dumbledore hadn’t even been able to find him… or at least he said he couldn’t. Narcissa looked him over for a moment before nodding.

“Very well,” she said and tossed her hair over her shoulder, “Is that all you need from me?” She asked. Her eyes were flicking to Andromeda with her jaw clenching slightly. Draco could only offer an apologetic smile in return.

“I trust both of you with my life,” he said softly, “Once all of this is over-”

“Then nothing will change,” his mother said immediately. Draco shook his head.

“If we rid ourselves of Voldemort we don’t have to play this disownment game anymore,” he told her, “We could see each other. I know we won’t necessarily agree…” He trailed off. His mother was staring at him oddly. Almost as if he had hit her. What? What had he done? He turned to look at Andromeda who bit her lip.

“I should get back home. Thank you for meeting with me.” Narcissa said and turned away. Draco opened his mouth to call after her, but she had vanished around the corner before he could even think of what he wanted to say. Bewildered, he turned back to Andromeda.

“I said the same thing to her,” she said quietly, “The night I left home. I think she just realized you sound more like me than you do her.”

Oh. Draco frowned a bit before turning to where his mother had left.

“Why can’t she just reconcile with us?” He asked, shaking his head, “I don’t understand-”

“You don’t need to right now,” Andromeda said and stood up, “You have enough to worry about. When all of this is done and you have a son of your own… then we can talk more about it.” She said, standing up to put a hand on either side of his shoulder. “I know I don’t quite… agree with her on many things, but… she does love you more than anything else in the world. I do hope you know that.” She told him gently.

“I guess,” Draco told her and shook his head, “Thank you. For everything.” He said and Andromeda smiled before squeezing his arms tightly and leaving in the same direction her sister had gone.

* * *

“There! You see? Are you looking?” Draco asked impatiently, pointing at the sky of the Astronomy Tower. Harry squinted up.

“I think so…” He said uncertainly and Draco sighed before redirecting his gaze appropriately. 

“There. It’s from Greek mythology,” Draco informed him as Harry hummed. “It’s a dragon, see? There are a couple versions of the story. One said it was killed by Hercules while guarding some golden eggs. Another, in the Roman version, said that the goddess Minerva killed him. She was like… the other version of Athena-”

“Why did your parents name you after something that was _killed?"_ Harry asked, shaking his head. Draco tried not to feel too impatient at that.

“I mean, there aren’t too many constellations out there that are happy,” he reasoned, “Andromeda was named after that one.” He said, pointing up at a cluster of stars glimmering above them, “That was the princess who was sacrificed to a sea monster… Actually, her mother was who my sister was named after.” Draco added as an afterthought.

“...what?”

“Cassiopeia. That constellation.” He added, pointing up again, “So, in the story, Cassiopeia was married to this king and had a daughter called Andromeda. She offended a god - Poseidon, I think - by saying she was much more beautiful than his wife. The gods got all huffy and said she had to sacrifice her daughter as an apology so then Andromeda got chained to a rock and eaten.” Draco shrugged. Harry blinked a few times.

“I’m still not seeing why your family chose these names.” 

Draco fell back on the ground with a snort.

“It’s a pureblood thing. Lots of old witches and wizards like to have some connection to the Earth. Everyone likes sky names… especially my family, but the Parkinsons usually choose flowers and plants.” He shrugged. “Also, Greek mythology is another common one because our lineage can be traced back to them. Everyone is a big fan of Circe,” he chuckled. Harry looked at him, “Come on. Your grandfather was named Fleamont.” 

“I feel very fortunate I was not given one of your pureblood names.”

“You _were_ ,” Draco told him, exasperated. Harry raised an eyebrow, “Fleamont’s father was named Henry and the history books always say he liked to be called Harry. I’m pretty sure that’s the connection,” he told him. Harry mulled over that for awhile, “In fact… that might be your full name.” Draco frowned, “Have you ever seen your birth certificate?”

“They put Harry Potter on my Hogwarts letter.”

“Yes and they listed your residence as the cupboard under the stairs,” Draco grumbled, “You should look into that.” He added, lying back down. Harry absently started tracing Draco’s constellation in the sky.

“I don’t particularly care much if my name is actually Henry. I would never go by it either way.” 

“Yeah, but it’s still your name,” Draco told him, mystified, “And a connection to your family. I thought you liked that kind of stuff.” He said and rolled over on his stomach to hover over him, trying to gauge his expression even in the dim lighting of the stars and moon.

“Eh, it’s not the kind of connection I really want,” Harry murmured, “I don’t know people through their names.”

“...yes, you do.”

“Really? What does my name being Henry have to do with the kind of people my parents were?” He asked skeptically. Draco shook his head.

“Henry Potter was a member of the Wizengamot and got himself in trouble by denouncing the Minister of Magic for not allowing the magical community to aid muggles during one of England’s important wars. If they named you after him then they valued the kind of person he was,” Draco said. Harry considered, “He also named his son Fleamont because that was his mother’s maiden name and she didn’t want to be the last of her name…. So actually, it is a little curious they didn’t give _you_ that name considering it’s now pretty much died out.” He mused, “Clearly your parents didn’t value the Fleamont family.”

Harry sat up, almost bumping heads with Draco as he did so. 

“It’s scary how much you know about me.” 

“You’re _famous_ ,” Draco reminded him, “So were your ancestors. It’s a little scary you _don’t_ know these things.” Draco said and tilted his head at him. “I guess it’s fine… you’re pretty enough to get away with it.” He grinned and Harry scoffed.

“If you’re trying to make me blush, it won’t work.”

“Yes, it will,” Draco said and narrowed his eyes, trying to find any sort of embarrassment in his features. Harry’s smile turned more into a smirk as he watched Draco with equal consideration. 

“I bet you would blush just trying to flirt with me.” Harry decided.

What a prick.

“I didn’t then.”

“Say something else then. Go on,” Harry said, “No insults allowed.” He added when Draco’s mouth popped open. Ugh.

There was actually a lot to compliment Harry on. His eyes, his face, his smile, the way he laughed, the way he talked, how he always seemed to toe the line between utter chaos and being reasonable. Draco liked the way his hands weren’t all that soft from quidditch and even how his hair was just as stubborn as he was. He liked how Harry was always so pleased by every magical discovery he came across and how he never looked scared of anything and -

“You’re blushing.” Harry informed him brightly, cutting off Draco’s thoughts completely. 

“You’re a monster,” Draco grumbled, highly displeased with how this had gone.

“Watch this. I can give you lots of compliments without blushing,” Harry continued because he was the worst to ever exist. Draco pursed his lips. “For example, you’re-”

The nice thing about dating someone is if they start being obnoxious then you can easily shut them up by kissing them. Draco had the feeling he might employ this tactic quite a bit in the future.

….in fairness, it didn’t look like either of them minded.

Sadly, they were interrupted by a familiar phoenix landing beside them. Draco groaned. Trust Dumbledore to ruin the mood without physically even being here. Draco looked around. He didn’t have any parchment on him… maybe Dumbledore had been trying to get a hold of him for a while. They had been up for a few hours now. 

“He wants to know what I’m up to, doesn’t he?” Draco asked and Fawkes tilted his head. Harry snorted. “That reminds me, actually.” Draco said and turned back, “Has he asked you for your cloak yet?”

Harry stared.

“My-? My invisibility cloak?” He repeated and Draco nodded. “Who? Dumbledore? Why would he need my cloak?” Harry asked. Draco shook his head. It didn’t make _sense_. 

“Maybe it isn’t your cloak after all… but he _had_ it…” Draco said. Sure, maybe Dumbledore just so happened to have James Potter’s cloak after his and Lily’s untimely death. But why? Why _did_ Dumbledore have it in the first place unless it was Peverell's cloak? Potter was said be a descendent of them. It made a lot of sense. 

“Draco.” Harry prompted impatiently, yanking at his robes to regain his attention, “Why would he want my cloak?”

“It’s a pureblood thing, sort of. The Deathly Hallows,” Draco sighed, “I keep thinking Dumbledore might have the Elder Wand. If he _does_ that’s really important for me to know because if Voldemort finds out then we’re screwed.” He reasoned, “The thing is… I… think _your_ cloak could be the Cloak of Invisibility. He would only need the Resurrection Stone and quite honestly, if anyone could get ahold of it… it would Dumbledore.” 

Harry stared at him, obviously lost, but Draco was still thinking out loud.

“The fact he hasn’t asked for your cloak means he _doesn’t_ have the Elder Wand or maybe he’s given up on ever finding the Resurrection Stone… or your cloak isn’t the right one. I could be grasping at straws,” he admitted, “I just know he’s ambitious. He’s always hinted that to me. Someone like Dumbledore would get bored playing with normal people and want a challenge. The hallows are the perfect challenge… plus he’s dying so I don’t know why he wouldn’t-”

“He’s dying?” Harry cut him off, suddenly sitting up very straight. Draco blinked. “What do you mean he’s dying?”

Draco opened his mouth. Was that a joke? It had to be. Dumbledore would have to tell Harry, right? He would have to. It didn’t make sense that he wouldn’t.

“His hand,” Draco began cautiously, “Harry, it’s cursed. Severus contained it as well as he could, but it’s going to kill him soon. Months even. Weeks.” He said and shook his head, “I don’t understand. You didn’t know? He asked Severus to be the one to kill him when I let the Death Eaters into Hogwarts.” He explained.

Harry looked like someone had just punched him.

Draco felt like punching Dumbledore, quite frankly. Who doesn’t _reveal_ that sort of thing? 

“But - he can’t die. He can’t _die_.” Harry said, suddenly standing up. Fawkes was still there, watching with curious eyes as Harry began to pace, “We can’t win without him. How are we supposed to find all the horcruxes? Or fight Voldemort? Does… Am I supposed to do that?” He asked, voice hitching slightly, “Alone? Why wouldn’t he warn me?”

Draco closed his eyes.

“I… don’t know,” he admitted, standing up, “But you’re not going to have to do any of that alone. Ron and Hermione will be there too. I’m going to join you as soon as I can.” He added, putting a hand on his arm. Harry swallowed.

“I don’t even know where the others can even be! I haven’t even gotten the damn memory out of Slughorn yet-”

“It’s okay-”

“How can it be okay?!” Harry asked, spinning around, “I don’t know what I’m doing, Draco!” He said, voice shaking more than he had ever heard it, “My mother is the reason I survived as a baby. The reason I survived Quirrell. Fawkes is the reason I survived the chamber. Sirius would have died if Hermione didn’t have a time turner and-”

Draco didn’t think he had ever seen Harry panic like this before. Overwhelmed? Angry? Upset? Frustrated? Yes. Never panicked though. Harry didn’t panic. Not like this. Then again… maybe this is why Dumbledore kept silent. Trauma simply happened to Harry and he was forced to continue in spite of it. Draco didn’t think anyone properly prepared him for any of the bad stuff that happened. It was a sucky reason to keep secrets from someone, but nevertheless… It was a reason. Either that or he didn’t want to risk putting Harry in a potentially gray scenario when the Chosen One should simply be operating in the black and white.

Maybe Draco would ask Dumbledore what the reason really was before jinxing him.

“Harry,” Draco finally said… and that was really all he knew he could say. Draco would love to tell him he had nothing to worry about because they would win. It’s just… he didn’t know that. Not for sure. Gently, he reached forward and intertwined their hands. “Hey, maybe.... Maybe I should stay.” 

For a moment, that seemed to jar him. Harry went still - digesting the words before turning back to look at him. 

“What do you mean?”

“You know I’m planning on leaving with the Death Eaters after this, but maybe I shouldn’t. I can go with you, Hermione, and Ron. Hunt horcruxes.” Draco told him. For some reason, _this_ was what seemed to make Harry’s eyes glass over - shining even in the night. 

“I can’t ask you to do that,” he whispered, voice catching. “You’ve worked hard to keep your family safe. I won’t ask you to leave it because I’m scared.” He said and Draco grimaced. 

“You’re my family too,” he told him and ran his thumb over his knuckles, “And you’ve never left me. If anything I owe my allegiance to you more than anymore. You’re who I _want_ to be with the most.” He said and Harry gave a weak smile at that. “I can figure something else out… fake my own death. Get some polyjuice potion. I’m not sure-”

Harry cut him off by kissing him. After a few minutes he sighed, pressing his forehead against his.

“We can’t do that,” he murmured, “You’re too important.” 

Draco frowned and pulled away. Yes, he was _absolutely_ important. He was Draco Malfoy. Important was his middle name. However, he wasn’t sure what Harry meant exactly. 

“To… what?”

“You found a way to get Death Eaters into the school and avoid casualties,” Harry told him, “You’ve already saved people. It isn’t just your parents you’re protecting…” he sighed and swallowed, “You can’t come with me.” He said and then gave a weak smile.

“I… am super touched by your confidence in me, but my plan absolutely might have casualties. You realize that, right?”

“Minimum casualties.” 

“I’ll take that,” Draco snorted and let go of Harry to flick Fawkes off. The bird squawked indignantly. “Tell your owner that I hate him.”

“Draco,” Harry frowned, “You just said he’s dying.”

Oh. Right. 

“Tell your owner that I strongly dislike him.”

“Jesus Christ,” Harry muttered and leaned back on one of the battlements of the tower to glance up at the sky, “Sorry, I freaked out.” He said as if the weight of the world on his shoulders wasn’t a good reason to freak out. Draco had half a mind to point it out, but instead just shook his head. 

“I’ll forgive you this one time, but don’t you dare do it again.” He said lightly and Harry snorted. A silence fell between them as Harry seemed to be processing the information for a few minutes before turning back to him.

“What exactly are those...death hallowed things you were talking about?” He asked. Draco closed his eyes.

“I really need to just get you a copy of your family tree.”

“Am I related to these people too?”

“ _Yes-”_

* * *

Ron was a little indignant. 

“First of all,” he began, “I am _not_ a bishop-”

“I told you not to take this personally,” Draco groaned, “Listen. You’re the best person to go over this with. Just be an adult and help me.” He said. Ron narrowed his eyes. “...fine. I’ll make you a knight.” Draco muttered and flicked up a wand so Ron’s name appeared over a different piece of the chessboard. Honestly, he considered bishops to be better pieces anyway. Whatever. Ron was the chess master. “Alright, so Harry’s the king-”

“Of course,” Ron snorted and Draco paused, “What? I’m just saying it isn’t a surprise that you made your boyfriend the most important piece on the board is all.” He said. Draco blinked a few times before spluttering. 

“He - I mean, he’s the Chosen One! Obviously, we have to protect him above everyone else," he said and then threw a pillow at Ron, "You're so bloody annoying." He mumbled. Ron rolled his eyes. **  
**

"Yep," Ron told him lightly and rearranged some pieces on the board between them, "And you seem _very_ dedicated to keeping our savior safe, Draco." He asked and when he lifted a questioning brow, snorted. “Mate,” Ron told him, “We live together.” 

That was a _terrifying_ explanation.

“...so?”

“So, I’ve noticed you two sneak out at night for your picnics or whatever crap you two do since you're such a romantic,” Ron said and Draco felt himself flush a dark red.

"I'm not a romantic," he grumbled. Ron gave a disbelieving laugh, "I'm _not!_ Harry's a liar!" Draco insisted, crossing his arms over his chest bitterly.

"Alright then," Ron said, "What did you guys sneak out to do the other day?"

"The other-? Oh, we went to the Astronomy Tower," Draco shrugged, "I wanted to show him my constellation." He said. Ron looked at him. Draco narrowed his eyes. "That isn't even romantic!" He said, throwing his arms up in the air when the silence became too much, "You know what? Whatever. How did we even start talking about this?" He fumed. Ron shook his head.

"We were talking about you be _so_ romantic by making Harry the most important piece in your grand plan," he said, fluttering his eyelashes, "Also, just so you know, I've definitely walked in on-”

“So Harry’s the king,” Draco said, slamming down the chess piece. Ron snickered. “I’ve asked Hermione to put me in contact with Viktor,” he added, trying to quickly move on. “What piece would you make him?”

“A pawn.” Ron said immediately. Draco looked at him, “I’m not saying that to be mean. Look.” He said and gestured to the board. Almost every other piece other than the pawns were labeled. Draco frowned and leaned back on the chair, “Look if you want to label people as chess pieces you have to treat them as such.”

“No,” Draco said, sitting up, “This is just helping me prioritize-”

“So… if you have to let someone die then this decides who?”

“No! It just helps me figure out who the Death Eaters would want to take out first,” Draco sighed, running a hand through his hair. He didn’t like this. It felt… very _pureblood_ to be playing God like this. To just dictate who is and isn’t worthy of making it through Draco’s scheming. He just couldn’t figure out a better way to do it. If they wanted to win the war… 

Merlin, he felt like _Dumbledore_. 

No. No, this was different. He was doing this to help prevent collateral damage. To help the kids and his friends make it out of here. Dumbledore hadn't spared them a second thought as far as he was aware. Ron gave him a sympathetic look before peering back down at the board with a look of utter concentration, tapping his fingers against his knee before nodding.

"Well," he began slowly, "Just remember if a pawn reaches the other end of the board it can become another piece," he shrugged and flicked over a few of his pieces, "So Krum might not be an important part of things now, but later..." he trailed off. Draco bit his lip. That did make him feel a little better actually.

“Fine,” he said and flicked his wand so Viktor’s name appeared over a pawn. He flicked it again and Fleur’s name appeared over another, “Only because they’ll barely be involved. I just want them at the other end of the portkeys.” He murmured. Ron shrugged. “Alright, who would you take out first?” Draco asked, gesturing to the board. Ron leaned over and considered.

“...Sirius or McGonagall.” He decided, “Powerful pieces, but not the most powerful. Also there is the emotional factor for both of them in real life. Our side would be most jarred if one of them died.” He pointed out. Draco nodded. That was easily resolved at least. Both were animagi and he had a job where that would be useful.

“Who's next?” He asked, plucking their pieces off of the board. Ron, bit his lip. 

“I wouldn’t worry about Fleur or Viktor if they aren’t physically here… plus the kids won’t necessarily matter much. They’d be pawns too. Nothing relevant to winning the war so they're pretty sage.” He said, now tapping his wand against the table in thought. Draco took their pieces off. “Sadie and Tristam.” He decided, “Only if they’re caught though. Assuming that they manage to stay incognito I wouldn’t even spare them another glance - where’s Zoe during all of this?”

“That depends,” Draco said, pinching the bridge of his nose, “If she’s having a bad day then I want her hiding somewhere in the castle. If she’s having a good one then I want her with you guys.” He mused. Neville and Luna would definitely be leading the older students… It would be good to establish that now since Ron and Hermione wouldn’t be there. 

“That brings me to my next point,” Ron said, tapping his wand against a knight, “They’ll assume Hermione and I are with Harry.” He added as Harriet slid up to the pieces and started knocking over Ron’s side. Draco rolled his eyes. 

“So you need to lay low with the others.”

“We’ll help the Order,” Ron rectified with a stern look that told Draco not to argue with him. Draco pursed his lips, but let it go. If he could recklessly join the Death Eaters then he wouldn’t through a hissy fit about them fighting. “Who is this?” Ron asked, picking up two pawns. Draco flicked his wand so names appeared on them. Ron gave a low whistle as held up one. “Very bold, Draco.”

“I mean,” Draco shrugged, “I do have to prioritize.” He said and Ron set the pieces down.

“It’s your plan, mate.” He said and tapped his finger against his thigh before nodding. “Well, I think we’ve done it.” He mused and leaned back against his chair, “You might actually be able to pull this off… unless something goes horribly wrong, of course.” He mused. Draco snorted.

“Don’t jinx it,” he muttered and looked him over, “I haven’t seen Lavender try to come in and taste your tonsils.” He mused and raised an eyebrow, “Is she still mad at you over the love potion thing?” He asked. Ron winced.

“Ah, well, that, um, you… see…” He stumbled out awkwardly, “I had… an incident…” He said slowly. Draco waited. “I thought to make it up to her I would let things go further along than usual…Only when we started getting there, I, uh...” He trailed off. 

“Gross,” Draco said and gave a nod, “Go on.” 

Ron closed his eyes.

"I don't want you to read into this."

Draco was absolutely going to read into this, but raised his hand in a subtle surrender anyways. Ron studied him over for a moment before sighing.

"Well, she started saying things she liked about me. I figured I should say stuff back," he began and Draco shrugged. Yeah, that was a good deduction, "Except, I mean... I said she was the smartest person that I've ever met and she kind of paused," he said and Draco bit his tongue, "Then I said I liked her eyes and it was good again... then I said other things like her laugh and stuff. That was good too," he reasoned, still looking baffled, "I figured since those were safe I would keep going, but then she got _pissed_ when I mentioned her eyes again." He said, throwing up his hands.

"What?" Draco asked, legitimately thrown-off. He had thought Ron was going to say something obviously idiotic to upset Lavender. He supposed Lav-Lav (Harry's nickname for her... though Draco found it hilarious) was a bit around the bend in his opinion.

"Yeah! She just left. No explanation. Threw a pillow at me and hasn't spoken to me since. I'm assuming we're broken up now."

"Because you said you liked her _eyes?"_

"I know!" Ron cried, gesturing to him, "It was bloody hard to think of romantic stuff on the spot too. I thought I did a good job. I said her eyes were like chocolate or whatever and that-" Ron began, but was cut off by Draco wincing. Ooh. That would do it. "Was chocolate really that bad?"

"Well," Draco said with a grimace, "I mean, it's not the best, but I think the main problem for Lavender here is that she doesn't have brown eyes."

The fire crackled awkwardly between them as Ron seemed to digest this fact.

"She doesn't?" He finally asked, "That's not right. I've always thought her eyes were pretty! They're definitely brown!"

Oh, Ron... Draco was going to save this story for either his wedding day or blackmail purposes. He wasn't sure which one, but either way he was going to cherish these moments all the same.

“Hold that thought," Draco finally said, "I need to clarify a few things.”

“I would rather you didn’t.” Ron said, but seemed resigned to his fate anyways. Draco held up a finger.

“First of all, you’re telling me that before this you and Lavender only snogged?” He asked and Ron shrugged, “Surprising, but okay,” Draco said and then shook his head, “And you were going to sleep with someone for the first time as an _apology?”_ He asked. Ron shrugged again, “No! I - that’s an awful reason. How far along did you actually get?"

“Not very.” Ron sighed. Well. No offense, but that was a relief. 

“And you basically said she had beautiful brown eyes even though I'm pretty positive their blue?”

"...you really think they're blue?"

"I went shopping with her last week so we could talk about you behind your back. She definitely told me she liked wearing beige because it brought out her _blue_ eyes," he said and when Ron opened his mouth, waved him away, "Yes, her and I gossip about you. Be an adult and get over it." He said and Ron made a face at him, "However, I would like to point out that within our tight-knit group there _is_ someone who has brown eyes."

Another pause. Ron went white.

"I, um, I - I don't even know anybody with brown eyes. Who are you talking about?" He asked nervously and Draco began to laugh. "I - _stop it!_ God, you’re annoying,” Ron said as Draco continued to cackle. “This is why I don’t tell you things,” he said. Draco only threw a book at him. “We are in the middle of a _war._ I can’t just go around declaring my love _-_ ”

“Love is on the table?!”

“No!” Ron gasped, looking horrified. Draco stood up, "No, Draco - _where_ are you going?" He asked, stumbling out of his armchair to get up and ready himself in case he needed to launch himself across the room.

"Calm down," Draco rolled his eyes, "I have other people I need to strategize with. You know, I only have a certain amount of allotted time to talk about your love life, Ron." He said. Ron threw up hands before flicking his wand to the chess pieces flew back into their case. Chuckling, Draco ignored him grumbling lowly under his breath to head out towards the owlery. Why his guest wanted to meet in a place with a bunch of owls was beyond him. He supposed the view had something to do with it.

"I think," Sirius greeted from where he was lounging by a window, "This belongs to you." He said and lifted a knife between his fingers. Draco smiled.

"You can keep that one. It seems to be lucky." He said and walked over to him, "You look good." He added. Sirius beamed in return. Freedom suited him well. He wore new robes - ones that actually fit and seemed to be of decent quality. His hair was brushed out, healthy, and actually looked decent and his face wasn't nearly as pale or gaunt as it had been in previous years.

"Fred and George are good people to work with," he said and ran a hand through his hair, "Though, I hear you have a job me as well." He said and tilted his head, "Is my godson privy to this new plan of yours?" He asked as Hedwig flew over to him so she could be pet. Draco nodded. "Good. I don't want to deal with... last year again." He grumbled with a slow exhale. Draco scoffed. "Which reminds me, actually, you two are dating?"

Oh no.

"Uh... maybe?" Draco said, "Who told you? Wait - does Andromeda know?" He asked, a little horrified. Damnit. He forgot to tell her. Shit.

"Well, Molly told Remus that Ginny and Harry broke up so naturally he told me who asked why and Remus said he didn't know so he asked Tonks who obviously went to Andromeda who was _going_ to ask you, but then when her and Ted went to tea with the Grangers heard that Harry was dating you. So she told me who told Remus and, of course, Tonks by extension - and then Moody got involved because he was worried this would be a distraction-"

"Holy shit, Sirius. Does everyone know?"

"No! No, of course not," he said and then paused and looked at Hedwig. Hedwig tilted her head before looking at where some other owls all paused to also look at Sirius as if sensing he was lying. Draco waited. "Well, yes, actually. Pretty much everyone. In the Order, anyways. Nobody who would make your life difficult knows - like no Death Eaters know. Well, nobody difficult except... um..." He rubbed the back of his neck. Draco narrowed his eyes.

"Except who?"

Sirius grimaced.

"...the Delacours."

"Fucking Hell, Sirius!" Draco shouted, throwing up his hands so a few smaller owls fluttered away, "Gabrielle is going to freak out! She sent me a letter the other day with glitter in it. Nothing else. _Nothing else_. Just glitter in an envelope. I don't understand that child. If she learns I'm dating Harry Potter then I have no idea what might happen. Will she send me another envelope of glitter? Will she be upset? Happy? I don't know! I can't figure out that child veela!" He said and Sirius clicked his tongue.

"Honestly, I would be more concerned with Fleur," he said and when Draco frowned, raised his hands, "I mean, she _does_ like Harry. Well, everyone likes Harry."

This was true. Draco gestured for him to continue.

"But she was kind of annoyed annoyed by the fact he is now dating her brother after dating her sister-in-law." He shrugged. Draco closed his eyes.

"We aren't actually related." He whispered. Sirius shrugged again.

"Tell that to her."

Draco was a lot of things... he preferred to think a fool was not one of them. For that reason, he would leave this alone. For now.

"Alright, whatever. I need your help with something." Draco continued. Sirius laughed and held up a finger, "Oh, for the love of - what?" He asked, already exasperated. Sirius cleared his throat and then pulled out a piece of parchment. "What is that?" He asked as Sirius unfolded it. "Look, I have important things to do regarding the war-"

"Draco Lucius Malfoy," Sirius read out. Fuck it. They were doing this now, "I have been waiting for this day for many years now. I write this from a dirty cave on a cold spring night," he said. Draco sat down, petting another bird by him. This was going to take awhile, "We haven't met. My name is Sirius Black. We our cousins, dear Draco. At this point in time, I don't know if we will be acquainted. I see you from distance. I have recently escaped from Azkaban and notice you have been sorted into Gryffindor-"

"Why are you reading this to me?"

"- I notice many things, Mr. Malfoy. Many things. I am a man of skill. A man of patience. A man of focus," Sirius continued to read, "I am proud to say I knew the very second that Lily and James met that I knew they would marry. I have seen a similar spark between you and my godson. Yes. Yes, I am Harry Potter's godfather-"

"This is what you're wasting my time with?!"

"-and I come to give you warnings, little cousin. If you harm my godson - emotionally or physically - I will prove that I indeed murdered thirteen people with one curse."

"You didn't even do that."

"Truthfully, I didn't even do that," Sirius continued and Draco threw up his hands, "But I can kill you with no curse as all. Remember that. Take my humble love, yours truly, Sirius." He read off. Draco waited. Was he done? He felt like he wasn't done. "P.S. I actually hope we can be friends. I know how hard it is to be a Gryffindor in a pureblood family." He finished and folded the paper again, "I have prepared a speech for Harry too if it makes you feel better. Granted, his was not written three years ago. I wrote his two years ago, but still."

Draco stared. Sirius stared back.

"I won't hurt Harry."

"Thank you," Sirius said, "Anyways, what did you need?"

Was this plan even worth it?

* * *

“Draco!” 

Draco turned, a bit bewildered to find a beaming Harry Potter _skipping_ (yes, skipping) up to him and grabbing either side of his arms. 

“What are you up to-?”

“I got Slughorn’s memory!” Harry grinned with... did he just squeal? He made a very happy noise, that's for sure, “Isn’t that great?” He asked. Draco laughed. Something about getting this memory had apparently put him in a rather exuberant mood. It was almost as if he was vibrating with excitement. Draco wasn’t sure he had ever seen him so carefree before. 

“I suppose it is,” he agreed and Harry kissed him. That… was a little concerning considering they were in the middle of a corridor, but luckily, it was empty. Thank goodness. Draco would not be a PDA-type couple. Not after seeing Lavender and Ron frolicking about. “What’s happening to you?” He asked. Harry grinned. 

“I love you,” he decided and then blinked in surprise. Draco snorted.

“I love you too.” He mused, not really thinking much as he said the words. It was true after all. Despite Harry’s new onslaught of teasing, Draco wasn’t _that_ much of a romantic. He hadn’t been planning on announcing it by a moonlit dinner or anything. Whatever surprise had crossed Harry’s face almost immediately faded again as he brightened.

“Okay, I’m going to see Dumbledore now!” Harry told him and kissed him again. Draco blinked a few times… was he on drugs? They learned about this muggle studies, he was pretty sure. They had their own version of herbology and potions that kind of mixed together and you could come up with nonsense like this. “Your eyes are like stars.” Harry informed him very seriously before bouncing off again, “We should eat chocolate later - with treacle tart!” 

...did some stranger just assault him by pretending to be his boyfriend? No. He mentioned treacle tart. It was definitely him.

“Hey, uh, you’re okay right?” Draco called after him. Harry paused in where he had a brief conversation with a painting to wave at him. “Harry - you… you’re okay?” Draco asked. 

“YOU’RE MY FAVORITE PERSON!”

“God, I wish you weren’t mine,” Draco said. Before he could go collect Harry and find out exactly what was going on, he had started heading off in the direction of Dumbledore’s office again. Had Slughorn confounded him? Draco bit his lip. 

“...oi. Malfoy! Are you coming or not?” A voice whispered and Draco turned back again. He would let Ron know that Harry was acting off so he could take care of it if Draco couldn’t grab him soon. “Malfo-”

“I’m right here you carrot looking twat,” Draco sighed and turned back to where a figure was hiding in the shadows, “You should be showing more respect for your superiors,” He added coolly as Montague flinched away, “Need I remind you that I’ve gotten to spend some quality time with our Dark Lord?” He asked. 

“I - yes, I know,” Montague muttered, not meeting his eyes. Draco scoffed. Pathetic. 

“Good. Now I have a job for you,” Draco said and leaned against the stone wall. He glanced around, eyes wandering for portraits and paintings that might be mucking about. He really hoped they were good eavesdroppers. He would want word of what he was about to say to spread fast, “I found a way to get Death Eaters into Hogwarts. However, to do so, I’m going to need something from you.” He smiled and leaned in slightly, “When I give you the signal… you’re going to have to kill Albus Dumbledore.”

* * *

Severus Snape might be many things... but a fool was not one of them. Draco knew this. It was why he decided he would be upfront the second he called Draco out on his bullshit.

"Something is bothering you."

"A few things are, actually," Draco told him as he added in more mandrake roots to his now bubbling potion. Severus glanced up from his own cauldron, sprinkling in some thyme. In addition to Draco making a rather large batch of polyjuice potion (for his marvelous plan, of course) he had also convinced Severus to help him make a decent dose of Felix Felicis. It would be a six-month project for them to work on, but Draco remained convinced have some on-hand for emergencies was a good call. "Does Dumbledore have a Deathly Hallow?"

Severus paused.

"Excuse me?"

"I think he has a Deathly Hallow. It's important for me to know," he said and Severus slowly stirred the potion for a moment, concentration waning as his eyes flicked between where the potion was slowly becoming more golden to where Draco was patiently waiting for an answer.

"Why?"

"Because I'm fairly certain that Voldemort is after the Elder Wand. I've been thinking it over and it makes sense," he explained, refocusing on his own potion for a moment. Ugh, how much fluxweed again? He narrowed his eyes at the instructions to be sure before sliding the ingredient into the cauldron. Good. "I know he's a powerful wizard. He defeated Grindelwald who was _also_ pretty powerful. I know there were rumors that he was also interested in getting the hallows. He might have found one and then after his duel with Dumbledore-"

"You're conjecturing this with almost no evidence," Severus pointed out, "There isn't even a surety Grindelwald possessed any Deathly Hallow - or that those fables are even _real_. Why does this suddenly matter to you?" He asked and Draco swallowed. He didn't want to admit it was Theo who had put the idea in his head. Severus might dismiss him entirely by saying it was some sort of emotional response to what happened over Christmas.

"I'm pretty sure they're real," Draco said, turning back to his own bubbling potion. He lowered the heat. "More importantly, if Dumbledore _does_ have it then I need to know given that he's weak and it would be all too easy for someone to take control of it," he said and the paused, "Did you know he didn't tell Harry that he was dying?" He asked. Severus sighed.

"He does these things for a reason, Draco."

"He has a god-complex," Draco muttered, "I learned well-enough that keeping secret plans never ends well. Why does he insist on operating this way? There's no good reason that Harry shouldn't know the truth. It's stupid." He grumbled and shook his head. "This war is about _him_."

"It isn't just about him," Severus said sharply, "He is merely who people rally behind."

Oh, because that was _so_ much better. Draco took a long breath.

"The point is-"

"The point is that you're too preoccupied with your boyfriend rather than focusing on important things," he said and nodded to Draco's potion, "It's cooling too fast." He added flatly. Draco flushed and flicked his wand to right it, "Dumbledore is wise to keep things to himself. Transparency may seem better given your past failures, but for those of us without a self-righteous need to right everything in the world it is easier." He said and Draco narrowed his eyes.

"So, what I'm hearing is that you wouldn't tell me if Dumbledore had a Deathly Hallow?" He asked. Severus sighed, "Honestly, why do you even do this? What motivation do you have?" He asked, throwing up his hands. He paused to check the potion again before redirecting his frustration back to his godfather, "All I can gather is that you were once close to Lily Potter and... I don't even know! Is choosing this side of the war because you owe something to her? It feels like you would rather be with the Death Eaters for real," he said. 

Severus stopped stirring. Draco was sure he had somehow crossed a line, but this whole thing felt _exhausting_. He loved his godfather, but how was he supposed to get anything done when he stubbornly concealed his intentions? Draco's plan worked on the merit that Severus actually had some compassion and (dare he say) decency.

Why did he make this so damn difficult?

"At the very least just... tell me what sectumsempra does," he said with a sigh. At this, Severus threw his wand down.

"I _knew_ it! Potter has it, doesn't he?" He demanded and then let out a low grumble that sounded like 'Roonil Wazlib'. Draco assumed there was a story there, but didn't bother to ask more on it. He had no doubt that it had something to do with his boyfriend being the menace he was destined to be, "Potions prodigy..." He muttered. Draco tapped on the table to regain his attention.

"You shouldn't be upset over your student learning," he pointed out, "Perhaps if the Half-Blood Prince taught us all then everyone would be master potioneers," he said and shook his head, "Half-Blood Prince, Severus? Was that really the best you could do?" He added and when furious eyes latched on him, chuckled, "Either way. Hermione is worried about Harry using that spell-"

"Don't let him use it!" Severus cut him off abruptly, "He could kill someone with it."

Oh. That was reassuring.

"What does it do? Why did you make a spell that could _kill_ someone? Was the killing curse not good enough for you?" He asked dryly. Severus rolled his eyes. He put a preserving charm over his cauldron and then walked around to face him fully, crossing his arms over his chest. Draco waited.

"It doesn't always kill people," he said, "It... is much like using an invisible sword. You slash your wand and it cuts your opponent very deeply," he said reasonably. Draco leaned forward, mouth opening slightly in horror, "It was just meant for me to deal with - people." He said slowly.

"Did people include James Potter?"

There was a very concerning pause that followed.

"You were going to cut the man in half?!"

"I didn't cut him in _half-"_

"You used it on him?!" Draco asked, voice going a little high. Severus rolled his eyes, "You actually have used this spell that you claim is very dangerous on people?"

"You sound like-" Severus began defensively and then stopped, "I barely nicked precious Potter. Ask his son if you don't believe me." He grumbled a bit darkly. Draco frowned. What did that mean? He tried to think of when Harry would have -

Wait a damn minute.

"The memory he mentioned... you called Lily Potter-"

"Evans."

"Whatever, you called her a mudblood. You used the spell in that memory?" He asked, brows furrowing. He internally sighed. Perhaps it had been very subtle. Still, he wished Harry would have picked up on it. How did he not know it was Severus? He pinched the bridge of his nose. Severus looked tense - jaw tightening as the mention of the memory at all. "Why _did_ you call her that? I've never known you to use that word."

"Mind yourself." Severus told him darkly. Draco shook his head. This was getting him nowhere. Plus, they were sidetracked from his original question. He had half a mind to redirect them back to it when a light knock followed. He turned to find Harry peering in before giving a small wave. Severus glowered before gesturing him in.

"Hi," Harry greeted as he shuffled next to their cauldrons, "I wanted to see if you were done," he told Draco and then gave Severus a wary look, "I also realized I hadn't thanked you for the memories you gave Draco of my mother." He added. For a second, Draco froze - a little concerned he might have been listening in. It was then that he remembered his Christmas present to Harry. Right. Severus had begrudgingly coughed up two very carefully selected memories.

The first, much to Draco's amusement, was of Lily Potter (oh, sorry, _Evans_ ) absolutely demolishing James in a duel with Severus cheering her on. They were maybe fourteen or so and Draco had to admit it had been amusing to see James strutting around like a strange, more prick-ish version of Harry only to be crushed by a rather calm and formidable Lily. Honestly, her composure during the whole thing did remind him of Harry whenever he was pissed off, but didn't want to admit it.

The second one had Sirius as a victim. Lily and Severus had apparently decided to tamper with his cauldron so that every time he put an ingredient in a rather foul smell of rotten milk exploded from it, dousing him a gross brown goo. Draco wondered how Harry would react to that one, but he seemed pleased to learn his mother sought revenge against the Mauraders when possible.

"You're welcome," Severus said stiffly and turned back to the potion. Draco shook his head.

"We also were discussing what sectumsempra did," he added to Harry. There was a choking sound as he whipped around to face Draco with horrified eyes, "What? I figured it was safer to ask the owner of that damn book." He added and waited for the realization to hit.

Three.

Two.

There it was.

"The... oh no," Harry muttered and turned to where Severus raised an eyebrow at him, "Ah. That... makes sense." He said, rubbing the back of his neck. There was a long pause during which his hand went protectively to his bag - as if concerned Severus might just snatch it back. "I guess I should be honest and say Roonil Wazlib is not my nickname." He added. Draco frowned at him. What was with this Roonil Wazlib business? 

"Yes," Severus said dryly, "You really had me fooled for a moment."

"Half-Blood Prince?" Harry added, tilting his head, "Interesting choice."

"Get out. Both of you." Severus grumbled, looking at the ceiling for a moment. Draco snorted and put a preserving charm on his own cauldron, "And don't use that spell," he pointed to Harry as he backed out of the room. "You'll kill someone." He warned.

"Kill?" Harry asked, voice going an octave higher as Draco grabbed his arm to pull him out of the room, "That spell _kills_ people?" 

"I'll explain it later."

* * *

Harry was acting weird. 

Granted, he was a weird one. Draco had theories as to why, but figured he would accept him anyways. Right now, he couldn’t really figure out why he was being so strange. At this point, Draco had pretty much sorted all of Harry’s ‘upset’ moods into a few different baskets. 

  1. Voldemort Mood: This one wasn’t really Harry’s fault and was mainly just due to the fact he had an evil wizard linked to him somehow. The telltale signs of this involved a lot of scar rubbing, lashing out, not knowing why he was angry, and absolutely zero patience for anything. 
  2. The Chosen One Mood: This mainly had to do with Harry not liking being in the center of attention or feeling too overwhelmed with the amount of pressure he’s under. This is often accompanied by forlorn, brooding looks out windows and wary sighs. 
  3. Residual Trauma Mood: Okay, this one is one that he didn’t tend to harp on given how sensitive it could be, but it deserved its own section all the same. You see, here is when Harry was dealing with all the bad stuff that happened to him. Prior to Voldemort returning, Draco had called this one ‘the Vernon Complex’. Signs of this mood included involuntarily flinching, being jumpy, not liking loud or sudden noises, and having the inability to handle green light of any sort.
  4. Teenager Mood: Self-explanatory. The mood literally everyone their age has. In Harry, specifically, this is mainly seen through endless groaning, whining, and refusing to do simple tasks such as homework, combing his hair, or having any sort of social skills. 
  5. Draco Mood: AKA he was annoyed/upset with something he or Draco did and was ignoring him until the problem went away or one of them broke down and apologized. 



Honestly, this seemed pretty close to the Draco Mood, but neither of them had done anything that really warranted getting upset about. Besides, Harry wasn’t quite ignoring him. He just wouldn’t meet his eyes and…

 _Guilt_. It was guilt, wasn’t it? Why the Hell was he guilty? Draco frowned, looking him over for a moment before slowly reaching over to poke him in the eye. 

“I - _ow,”_ he snapped and then bit his lip quickly. Right. If he didn’t want to yell at Draco for annoying him then he definitely was feeling guilty over something. 

“What did you do?” He asked and poked him again, “Harry.” He prompted.

“What? I - I mean, I didn’t - what are you talking about?” He stuttered out and then flinched, “I just… You… did Hermione say…? I didn’t mean to!” He burst out so loudly that Draco almost fell off the couch. 

Oh God. What did he _do?_

“I just meant to use it to get Slughorn’s memory and _nothing else_. I didn’t know we were going to meet in the corridor and I hadn’t really planned on saying anything! It just sort of happened and then it was over and I couldn’t figure out how to fix it and I never wanted to force you or anything, but-”

“What are you even going on about?” Draco asked and Harry closed his eyes. 

“I took Felix Felicis earlier,” he whispered. Draco’s mouth parted slightly. Ah. That made _so_ much more sense. Though it did little to explain why Harry was so up in arms. Harry must have sensed he still didn’t understand because he gave a long sigh, “As in, I was under its influence when we.... said… things… earlier…”

What? What things? Was he - _oh._ Draco digested the information before closing his eyes for a few seconds to gather himself.

Thank God Harry was pretty. Draco wasn’t sure he would get by if he wasn’t. 

“Is this because of what I was saying earlier about love potions?” He asked and Harry bit his lip, “Because amortentia and Felix Felicis don’t operate similarly at all. Didn’t your Half-Blood Prince tell you that?” He asked. 

“They don’t?” Harry asked cautiously, “It didn’t force you to say anything you didn’t want to?” He asked, wringing his hands together. Draco's heart might have melted a little at that.

“Felix Felicis deals in luck. It can’t change certainty. It would be wonderful if your parents rose from the dead, but that’s not possible so it won’t happen no matter how much liquid luck you take. Even if you _had_ given it to Ron during that quidditch match it just manipulates chance. It doesn’t necessarily give him skill he doesn’t have or take away the skill of the other players. It just messes with the possibility of someone being distracted, the balls slipping from someone’s hands, or maybe a broom losing some of its kick,” he shrugged, “All things that _could_ happen even without Felix Felicis.”

Harry nodded slowly. 

“So....” he began, lips tugging slightly upwards as the previous trepidation seemed to disappear, “That means it can’t force feelings for anyone, right?” He asked. Draco rolled his eyes.

“You undoubtedly have the most wonderful, unexpected, extraordinary, brilliant, spectacular luck in possibly all of Europe because I definitely meant what I said in the corridor… even if it’s super gross.” He added under his breath, “The only thing Felix Felicis might have had a part in is increasing the chances I would want to say it.” He mused, “But the feelings are very real and - _Harry_.” He complained when he was pulled into a hug. Rolling his eyes, he just went with it and turned to kiss the side of his head. 

“Hey,” Harry said casually when he felt go and absently started playing with Draco’s hands. It was a recent thing he had started doing. Instead of fiddling with his quill or robes he had taken to just using Draco had a human toy. “Did you ever tell Theo that you loved him?”

“Didn’t take you for the jealous type.”

“I’m not… but did you?” Harry asked. Draco scoffed.

“Did you tell Ginny that you loved her?”

“Didn’t take you for the jealous type.” Harry shot back. 

There was a pause before the both started laughing. Draco wasn’t sure what the answer was. He didn’t particularly care. If he was the hundredth person Harry said he loved that would be fine as long as there was nobody after. He got the feeling Harry was thinking the same.

“I -” He began and then fell silent as he took a step back, “Are those… my robes?” He asked. Draco looked down. Oh. Uh. He glanced back up at where Harry was evaluating Draco’s outfit choice with a raised eyebrow.

“No,” Draco told him. Harry raised the other eyebrow. “I’ve owned these for years.”

“Hm,” Harry said and smirked, “You’re probably right. Mine would be baggier on you-”

“Fuck off, we’re practically the same size. These fit fine.” He muttered and Harry gave a triumphant chuckle. Damnit. Draco rolled his eyes and pushed him away, “Whatever. You wore my pajamas the other day.” He grumbled.

“Only because you stole my socks-”

“No, it isn’t stealing. I got you those forever ago-”

“Yeah, you got them for _me_. They’re _mine_ , Draco.”

“Um, but I paid for them?”

“That isn't how gifts work!”

“I think I would know how gifts work-”

“FOR THE LOVE OF MY MOTHER AND HER ANCESTORS!” Seamus’ voice shouted from out of nowhere, “STOP FLIRTING FOR FIVE GODDAMN MINUTES!”

Draco spluttered.

“THAT’S NOT TO SAY WE AREN’T HAPPY FOR YOU!” Dean called from somewhere else in the common room, “CONGRATS AND ALL BUT WE NEED TO SLEEP!”

“We weren’t even-”

“AND DON’T THINK JUST BECAUSE YOU HAVE THAT GOD FORSAKEN CLOAK THAT WE CAN’T HEAR YOU MAKING OUT! JUST GO TO THE BLOODY ROOM OF REQUIREMENT OR SOMETHING!”

“This is horrifying,” Draco said, turning to Harry, “Absolutely horrifying.” 

Then… to make it _more_ horrifying, other voices joined in.

“ARE DRACO AND HARRY IN LOVE?!” A voice from the second-year dormitory called. Harry grimaced as he looked at the down, face bright red.

“WHAT DOES MAKING OUT MEAN?! WHAT ARE THEY MAKING?!”

“GO TO SLEEP!”

“YOU GUYS ARE A CUTE COUPLE!”

“WAIT - YOU TWO ARE ALREADY DATING?! FUCK, I OWE GEORGE SO MUCH MONEY!” 

“WHY CAN’T YOU PEOPLE LET ME SLEEP!?!”

“We’re leaving,” Draco said, pulling Harry towards the portrait hole, “We’re leaving and we’re not coming back. Forget the war. They can die. I’m not dealing with this.” Draco told him. There were a few grumbled responses at that before Seamus started yelling again.

“HA! AS IF EITHER OF YOU COULD FOCUS ON THAT BLOODY WAR WHILE CHECKING THE OTHER OUT!”

“Never ever, ever, _ever_ returning.” Draco said as Harry practically sprinted to follow him out of the room.

* * *

Draco was trying to be... not... angry...

Trying being the key word. It was hard given the circumstances. He was seated in front of Dumbledore with his foot practically vibrating as he stared the man down. Dumbledore was simply writing something down as if nothing was wrong. Finally, Draco cleared his throat.

"I don't understand you," he began. Dumbledore glanced up, "You didn't tell Harry you're dying."

Dumbledore grimaced.

"Ah," he said and nodded, "I suppose you are upset-"

"You _suppose?"_ Draco asked and shook his head, "Why would you not mention that to him? What good would your silence have done?" He asked. Dumbledore's eyes watched him carefully. Not answering. Just observing. Like he was a freaking animal to watch, "Fine. We can come back to that. Tell me about the Deathly Hallows."

More silence.

"No? Not willing?" Draco asked. He leaned forward so that he was practically resting on the desk between them, "I need to know what you know. I know you haven't exactly announced it to many people, but you are _dying_. Even if I wasn't bringing Death Eaters into the school that fact alone leaves Hogwarts unprotected. Your students at risk - not that you seem to care. Death Eaters will be able to use this to their advantage and if just one - _one_ of them says there are three objects out there that would keep Voldemort from dying..." He trailed off.

"Tom has his horcruxes."

"He - I fucking know what he has!" Draco shouted and stood up, "You need to tell me if the Hallows are real and how to destroy them. Theodore Nott mentioned looking for them. I have no idea if he is or not, but if we can just get rid of one then that's a start. He mentioned one might be at Hogwarts-"

"I think," Dumbledore said slowly, "You should let me worry about that and focus on the horcruxes. In order to check the king you must first take out the bishops."

This fucking guy. Draco laughed. He couldn't help it. He couldn't. Fawkes tilted his head at him, perhaps sense Draco's rising disbelief.

"All your bloody chess analogies... you think I'm just some kind of pawn, don't you?" He asked, pacing the length of the office, "You're a hypocrite and a liar and have no idea how to actually win this war." He said, spinning around to point a finger in Dumbledore's face. The headmaster smiled slightly - as if knowing something Draco didn't... which he did. He did and it was the most obnoxious thing in the world.

"I believe you can win this war after I pass."

"If we follow your instructions, right? If we follow the breadcrumbs you leave us like blind fools because you won't tell us what we actually need to know!" He snarled. Dumbledore's stupid smile remained stagnant, "You're so incredibly vain, you know that? You say that Harry's edge in this war is that he puts love above everything else," Draco said, shaking his head, "And that Voldemort doesn't even know what love is - but do _you?"_ He asked. At this Dumbledore went eerily still. If Draco hadn't known better he might say someone had jinxed him. He pressed on. "I mean, you haven't put love first your entire life. What do you know of it?"

Dumbledore put the quill down.

"I hadn't realized you knew so much of me, Draco."

"I know - _Albus_ ," Draco shook his head. The usage of his first name was a little odd, but somehow it felt natural for this conversation, "How do you think I spent my childhood? My summers? I wasn't raised as a muggle and I wasn't raised to think of you as my _friend,"_ He told him, "Of course, I know about you. I know about your dead sister. I know about your brother. Both of them, actually. Tell me, which one of your siblings did you prioritize due to _love?"_ He asked. Silence. "Or, I know, perhaps you know of love through Grindelwald?"

"Do not speak of what you do not know." Dumbledore said sharply. Draco scoffed. There it was. The infamous Albus Dumbledore's weak spot. Everyone had one. Draco had wondered for years what his would be.

"I know you chose power over him," Draco said quietly, "But maybe I'm missing something. _Did_ you choose love over power?"

"Gellert was corrupted by power-"

"But what did you choose?"

"I tried to save him-"

" _But what did you choose?"_

"Enough!" He shouted, standing up so suddenly that Draco moved back a bit. His eyes were burning brightly - like the center of a flame. For a moment, he looked down. Draco realized his good hand was shaking. He shook his head. Unbelievable. Part of him wanted to relish in the fact he had actually gotten a rise out of the old man, but he wasn't done yet. Not anywhere near done.

"Who are you lecture anyone on how to win a war through love?" Draco finally asked him, "You have not made a single sacrifice to protect a single person you care about. Who? Give me one name. Just one." He said and when he received no answer, looked beside him at the wall, "Stop. Hurting. Him." He whispered, "Harry trusts you and your sick games hurt him every _single_ time."

"I am trying to keep him alive."

"And how the Hell was not telling him you're dying keeping him alive?" Draco shouted, standing up. "You were just going to blindside him by that? What was the plan? Severus kill you to convince Harry he's a full-on Death Eater? Wouldn't it be safer for him to know Severus was on his side? Or are you _still_ trying to cut him off from people who might help him?" He asked and when Dumbledore opened his mouth, held up a finger, "No. Don't deny it. It took both Sirius and Severus combined to get him out of the Dursleys' house. You rewarded him for _not_ going to people. You never offered him any help during our fifth year - or at the very least sent someone else to help him. You've been trying to isolate him for years."

"Draco-"

"Tell me about the Deathly fucking Hallows." Draco cut him off, "Before I swear to God I'll find a way to hurt you as you have hurt the people I love."

"I am not your enemy here," Dumbledore told him and when Draco simply stared back, sighed. "Yes. Yes, the Deathly Hallows are real. Tom does know of one."

"The Elder Wand." Draco said with a nod. Relief was blossoming in his chest. He just needed to destroy _one_ , "Where is it?" He asked and Dumbledore's eyes flicked down. Draco followed it. It took a moment to click. Then he felt his blood turn cold. Something seemed to possess him for a moment - a wave of emotion he wasn't even aware he was capable of. Righteous anger and fear swirling in the pit of his stomach. "You..." He breathed out. Draco wasn't sure of why he was shocked. Part of him deep down had sensed it. He swallowed the revelation. There was no reason to address it now.

"He's still alive, isn't he? Gindelwald?" Draco asked. Dumbledore merely stared back at him. For a second, he could a sworn he saw a glimmer of anger in his eyes, "I wonder if he's going to come to your funeral."

"He will not." Dumbledore said simply. A deep knowing in his expression. A kind of knowing that Draco knew he would never thirst for. Yanking his bag up, he turned away. "There is no shame," Dumbledore told him, suddenly, "In being a pawn. They are the only innocent pieces on the board. The ones who don't need to worry about the hard decisions or sacrifices." He told him and swallowed before continuing, "One day," he finally said, voice quiet and almost... maybe even a little broken, "I hope you might understand I did make sacrifices. There are times and reasons in which you will have to sacrifice those you love for the greater good," he said and looked Draco over for a moment - with an intensity that almost made him think there was some sort of hidden message there, "You may need to remember that one day."

Draco smiled. Honestly, he felt a little sad for him.

"No, professor," he said softly, "There are times and reasons in which you will have to sacrifice the greater good for those you love. I'm sorry that you never found anyone in your life to make you see that."

Dumbledore didn't respond as he left the room.

* * *

"So, should we... you know, talk?" Harry asked one night. They were in the Room of Requirement since that was the only real place to have any privacy. Draco had honestly been starting to drift off when Harry's voice pulled him out. He blinked a few times. The room had dimmed - probably sensing Draco slipping off only to brighten back up again to reveal a room that had oddly resembled Draco's childhood room back at the manor. Silver furnishings with a marble fireplace and a crystal chandelier. Harry had been sure to endlessly make fun of his taste upon entering as Draco tried to loudly object he had asked for any of it when calling for the room.

"Should we _talk?"_ He repeated, "If you'd like. We seem to be doing a fine job of it right now," He mused. Harry fixed him with a long look, "I don't know what you mean," he snorted and Harry sat up. Several beats of silence followed as Draco tried to register what on Earth he could be - _oh._ "Ah, um, well-" He began, flushing and Harry snorted.

"We don't _have_ to, but I figured we probably should eventually. I don't want to accidentally cross any boundaries." He said with such concern that Draco honestly thought he could die at how sweet it was. It was a fair question... That didn't stop Draco from turning red at the implications of it all. He gave a small nod.

"Right, yeah. That... makes sense. We should. Uh, have you had... that kind of conversation before?" He asked, sitting up. He didn't like this at all nope. This felt awkward as Hell. Harry was so lucky Draco was willing to put up with this. Dear _God_.

"Ginny and I a bit, but it wasn't serious or anything. Just a what-if type thing." He shrugged, "You?"

"Um... no," Draco admitted, rubbing the back of neck as he felt himself get a bit hotter, "I mean - well, my family. We generally don't - yikes," he muttered and ran a hand over his face, "So, here's the thing," he began and pointed a finger at where Harry was grinning, "Don't laugh at me!"

"I'm not! I won't!" Harry said, holding up both hands, "I'm being serious. Sorry." He added. Draco rolled his eyes.

"With the pureblood marriages and what not... We, um, we... kind of just abide with the whole abstinence thing. You know, wait until marriage type of deal."

"I see," Harry nodded, "So do _you_ want to do that? I'll also remind you that Ron says we're already married if you're looking for a loophole." He added and Draco couldn't help, but snort at that.

"No, I don't. It's just something I've never thought about because of that," he shrugged, "Well, I mean, I shouldn't say that given Andromeda..." He grumbled. Harry winced.

"Was it a super awkward sex talk?"

"Ha," Draco said and shook his head, "I _wish,"_ he groaned and when Harry tilted his head, raised a both hands, "Look, she learned through Dora that we aren't going to abide by those sorts of customs. However, Andromeda - who I love to death even though she did this to me - does not know how to give a normal sex talk because she never had one."

"I am so excited to learn where this going," Harry said, grabbing a treacle tart from the tray beside them. Draco gave a suffering sigh.

"It wasn't a talk because I got a goddamn sex _seminar,"_ He said and Harry choked, "There was a bloody keynote speaker."

" _No_."

"It was awful. She literally covered every scenario she could think of and then _hired_ people to cover scenarios she couldn't cover. It took all day, I swear to Salazar." He said as Harry began laughing, "No, you don't understand. I might put it into your pensieve later to show you. I'll never recover from it." He said as Harry continued his evil cackling, "Wait... what about you? Did _Vernon_ explain muggle sex to you?" He asked, wondering if there was even a difference between the two. Harry shuddered.

"No. Thank God. Though... Sirius decided to over the summer."

"Really? How did that go?"

"Uh, a lot of anecdotes," Harry grimaced, "Like, _a lot._ I was actually kind of concerned about him at the end of it all. Wasn't a fan of that." He said as Draco began to snicker, "And now that I know threesomes aren't what I originally thought, I'm a little more horrified." He added. Draco gave a fake gag.

"Well, clearly he didn't do a good job-"

"No," Harry said, raising a finger, "No, that is the only thing he didn't go into detail on. Trust me. I know everything else... in too much detail. Besides, Remus came by to give me the textbook version of everything." He sighed, running a hand over his face, "It was torture, but... well. It wasn't a seminar." He added under his breath. Draco shuddered again. God. Bad memories. "At least I know I'm speaking with an expert."

"Yeah, sure," Draco snorted, "I'm a real professional." He said and then tilted his head, "What did you and Ginny talk about? Just when or...?"

Harry turned bright red. Interesting.

"Uh, well. I, ugh." He groaned, sinking a bit in his seat. Draco frowned. This was _his_ idea. What was this? "We did talk about when," he said and shook his head, "In hindsight, I was an idiot." He said, "I told her I didn't really want to try anything without you."

Draco blinked.

"Excuse me?"

"I _meant_ as in it seemed like a stupid thing to talk about or try while you were missing! I didn't mean I wanted you to _join_ _,"_ Harry grumbled, "But she took it the same way you just did. It was really awkward when she basically said she wasn't into it."

"And yet...you _still_ didn't know what a threesome was-"

"You're going to hold that over me forever, aren't you?" He asked. Draco nodded. Until the day he died, definitely, "Whatever. None of that matters now. I just want to know how far we should go. Like... what's okay?" He asked slowly. Draco narrowed his eyes.

"...why do I have to go first? What's okay for _you?"_ He asked suspiciously. Harry scowled.

"I asked first!"

"So? Maybe I don't want to go first."

"I - okay," Harry grumbled and reached over to open a drawer that suddenly appeared next to them. A parchment and two quills sat inside. Harry tore the parchment in half, "We'll write it down and trade. That way nobody has to go first and we can be honest." He reasoned, handing Draco the other half. Draco shrugged and accepted the offered quill as well. After several seconds of silence, Draco folded it over and handed it to him. Harry passed him his.

There was a pause where they flipped it open.

"This is blank."

"So is yours." Draco said, holding it up. Harry sighed.

"...this is going to take forever, isn't it?"

Spoiler alert: it took three hours... which wasn't as long as Andromeda's sex seminar, but still much longer than it needed to be.

* * *

Draco hadn’t known it at the time… but that night was one of the last nights he would get with Harry for a good six months. Dumbledore found another horcrux shortly after that. Then, well... then came everything else.

Draco had been hoping to put his plan action a little before letting the Death Eaters waltz into the castle. However, the downfall of keeping Dumbledore out of the mix was that Draco couldn’t really control the timing of it all.   
  


No matter. He had prepared for this. Harry warned him that him and Dumbledore would be leaving soon, which gave him enough time to alert all his helpers before letting the Death Eaters in.

”It would be too suspicious if I waited until after Dumbledore gets back,” he told Hermione as he put on a cloak. “Tell McGonagall to start so we at least get everyone in their hiding places before I let them in.” He warned.   
  
It was fine. Draco figured it would work out well enough. Dumbledore would be weak after that adventure and hopefully give Montague an upperhand.

“Clever, clever, clever boy!” Alecto chuckled as she stepped out of the vanishing cabinet. Bellatrix followed closely after her, looking around the Room of Requirement with a small smile before turning towards him.

“Well done, Draco.” She told him fondly and pressed a hand to his cheek, “I knew you would come through,” She said and glanced around, “Oh, I cannot wait to see what has changed since I went to school here.” She hummed, twirling a strand of hair around her finger. 

“My, my, my…” Gibbons crowed following the others, “This looks like so much fun!” He cackled and flicked his wand absently between his fingers. Draco gave a small smile in return, “How should we start this off?”

And so it began. 

It was easy enough for them to cause chaos. The moment someone saw Fenrir Greyback was when the screaming started. Draco didn’t wait around too long to see it though. He had things to do. After all, once Death Eaters got into Hogwarts he knew they would have no plans on leaving. Slipping around the corner, he transformed into his animagus form.

“Look!” A girl whispered and Draco sat down, “It’s the fox.” She said and looked around hesitantly before taking a couple other first years and warily moving towards them. “Tristam told us to wait for you.” The girl told him quietly, eyes flicking over the corridors. Somewhere further down there was a scream. Draco stood up before trotting forward, waiting expectantly for them to catch on. 

Sure enough, a small group of first-years started following him through the castle. It was a very stressful situation. He had to keep snapping his jaws at them when they got too loud or hurriedly herd them somewhere if he thought someone was coming, but eventually he got them all into an empty classroom.

“What’s in here?” A boy asked warily and Draco yapped as he walked over to pull a blanket off of a table in the back of the classroom. He looked at them. It would be so much easier to turn back into a human to explain, but children were big mouths and he didn’t need them blabbering on about who had saved them.

“Um, I think he wants us at the table?” The boy said as another student walked over to start petting Draco. Ugh. He needed them to hurry. Getting up, he spun around in order to demonstrate. One girl laughed.

“Oh! It’s a portkey!” 

Aha! A smart one.

“Not uh, _stupid_. You can’t use portkeys at school without the headmaster setting it up.”

No! Damnit! Draco growled in frustration before walking over to the first student to show who was right. 

“Maybe Dumbledore set it up?” She suggested.

McGonagall did, but not the point. They could argue over the logistics later. Draco bit lightly at her robes, pulling her towards the table. A few kids followed until Draco _finally_ had them all around the table. He waited. What the Hell was this? He wasn’t like this as a child, was he? When nobody moved he gave a small growl.

“Why are we even listening to this random fox?” Another one muttered. Draco paused. Alright, that kid might have been him when he was eleven. Now was not the time to question these things though. He snapped his jaws at him and they all jumped, grabbing onto the table unanimously. Finally. He waited until the portkey set off, whirling a bit as the kids zipped away. Lord. He never wanted children. Switching back to his human form, he set back out into the castle.

“Where have you been?” Bellatrix called from one end of the hallway, dancing around as she destroyed paintings with a flick of her wand. From behind her, Draco felt his heart stop at the slight outline of a black dog with a small group of second-years. Shit. At least Bellatrix hadn’t noticed them yet. 

“Trying to see if Dumbledore is back,” he lied easily, “We should head up to his office. His passwords are easy enough to guess,” he snorted. This was true at least. Given that you knew some basic candy names. Bellatrix clicked her tongue.

“Always so concerned with business,” she told him and walked over to cross her arms over her chest, “You’ve done well, Draco. Go have some fun before we get to him. Torture a few mudbloods. Kill some prefects.” She said, licking her lips, “I’ll keep an eye out for Dumbledore.” She said. From behind her, Sirius began creeping forward in his animagus form with another group of students behind him. Draco noticed that his group of kids were dead silent - either from fear of Draco and Bellatrix or because they were better behaved then his lot. 

“Kill? I thought we infiltrated this school to properly educate them,” Draco frowned at her, “We can’t find loyal supporters if we murder them.”

Bellatrix sighed.

“I suppose there is the foresight the lord seems to value in you,” she muttered and raised her hands up slightly, “Fine. Torture is still on the table though. We need punishments in hopes to educate them.” She said, smiling slightly. At this point, Sirius and the kids had managed to get past. Thank God. 

“I mean, that goes without saying,” Draco snorted and touched her arm lightly, “I’ll be back then. You keep having fun.” He said and Bellatrix gave a slight chuckle before skipping down the hall again, sending everything in her path either toppling to the ground or bursting up in bright flames. Draco swallowed. Right. 

He weaved a bit further in, stopping occasionally to slip back in his animagus form to lead a few other kids to the portkeys they had hidden about the castle. He came across McGonagall in her cat form doing the same.

“AMYCYS!” He called after pointing Sirius in the direction of a couple first-years that Draco had hidden away, “I have a job for you.” He said, leaning against the wall. As he expected, Alecto turned as well, lips both curling in horrifying unison.

“Ooh, orders from the mastermind himself?” Alecto called as she walked over with her brother. Draco gave a tight smile in return. “What do you need?” She asked. Draco wondered if she usually hijacked her brother’s jobs or if they were really just that inseparable.

“A mudblood won’t let me into the Hufflepuff common room. I thought she could use some more persuasion. I have yet to learn all your torture techniques so I figured we could make this a learning opportunity.” He informed them both brightly. Amycys clicked his tongue.

“Donovan was right about you,” he mused, “Very opportunistic.” 

Oh, they had no idea. 

“I’ve been waiting for this sort of thing for awhile,” Draco said instead and started leading them down the corridors. Another scream echoed down the hallways. He tried to remind himself that it was probably Neville or Luna playing along. While it would be obvious if they snuck out _everyone_ from the castle, Draco did set up some safer places within Hogwarts they could hide in. It was fine. It was _fine_. “Rumor has it that you’ll be the ones stationed here,” Draco continued as he brought them closer to the Hufflepuff common room.

“Of course,” Alecto chuckled, “We’re very interested in providing education to our youth. Severus will be headmaster, of course, but we’ll take over some of the classes.” She told him. Draco smiled. Good. 

“Well, I have every belief that you’ll do brilliantly.” He told them and stepped to the side. 

“Thank yo - where’s the mudblood?” Amycus began, but was cut off by two figures stepping out.

“ _Stupify.”_

Draco watched Alecto and Amycus fall to the ground before kicking their wands out of their hands. Sadie and Tristam walked over to grab them, taking off their robes to switch with them as Draco set to work tying them up.

“Remember, everything that Severus went over with you,” he said, pulling out some hair to put in the cups of bubbling polyjuice potion they had brought out, “Occlumency is going to be important if you come across any Death Eaters. He told me you were both doing well, but you need to make sure you keep practicing at it. If they realize you aren’t the Carrows then we’re screwed.” He said. Sadie nodded as she tipped the potion back, making a face as she did so.

“Yeah, we know, Draco. Don’t worry. We also have been practicing legilimency so we’ll make sure to study them both to answer all the questions we need to.” She said. Draco nodded a bit nervously. He wasn’t sure how comfortable he was with this, but there was no going back now. “We’ll be the ones stationed at the school, right?”

“Yes, Severus should be the only other Death Eater there so you have nothing to worry about other than making sure everything looks up to standard whenever Bellatrix or anyone else tries to check in. Make sure the students look scared and everything is wrecked. Try to tout whatever Death Eater stuff you know.” He said and pointed at where Amycys and Alecto were, “And make sure they don’t escape. You’ll need their hair for a while.” He added. Tristam - now a stunning image of Amycus - nodded. 

“We got this. You go. I heard Montague was near the Astronomy Tower.”

Shit. 

“Okay - be careful-”

“ _Go_!”

“Merlin, fine. I’m going.” Draco grumbled before going back to his animagus form. He could hear a commotion now. The Order must all be here. Draco had asked them to retreat as soon as possible, but it would be strange if they didn’t at least put up a fight. Concern tightened in the pit of his stomach. Where were Harry and Dumbledore?

A crash answered that for him. 

“ _Expelliarmus_!” 

Montague. 

Draco switched back to his human form to sprint up the tower to find a very weak Dumbledore. Montague’s disarming charm wasn’t very strong - it barely pulled the wand looser in his hand, but Draco would make it work. 

“Well done!” He called. Bellatrix was somewhere below him, he could feel her presence like an earthquake rumbling underneath them. Montague turned to him. Dumbledore must have somehow sensed what Draco wanted because he put his wand up his sleeve right as Harry appeared beneath his cloak. He could see Harry whisper something lowly - making Dumbledore smile grimly and patting the side of his face gently before he let go. Then Harry was gone. Vanished under his invisibility cloak once more.

“I knew a pureblood such as yourself wouldn’t have any trouble with Dumbledore,” Draco continued, walking closer. Montague looked vaguely shocked at the mere idea he had done anything at all, but it was quickly covered up with a smug smile when he heard the other Death Eaters rushing to join them. “Go ahead. Kill him.” Draco offered.

He was actually a little curious if he would. Montague paused - eyes widening a bit at the words before swallowing. It almost made Draco feel a little bad. He looked scared.

“Or,” he rectified, ignoring the relief on Montague’s face, “We can make a show of it. What do you think Bella?” He asked down the spiral staircase, “Should we give my headmaster the send off he deserves?” 

A laugh echoed around as an answer. Severus came first. He could see his eyes watching him expectantly. The order was clear - _step aside and let me_. Montague clearly wasn’t going to be able to do it. Draco shook his head. No. No, not knowing what he knew. He moved between them, ignoring Severus' eyes narrowing as he did so.

“We don’t need a show,” Fenrir said, stepping out, “I can do that-”

“No.” Draco said sharply. He wasn’t sure why. Fenrir killing Dumbledore actually resolved a lot of issues for him. Maybe… part of him couldn’t help but think that despite everything… Dumbledore shouldn’t die like that. It seemed cruel.

Fenrir turned to him, eyes glowing as he gave a low growl. Draco didn’t flinch away. 

“No?” He repeated and Draco walked past him, grabbing Dumbledore’s arm so he was no longer wilting next to a column. He seemed so… frail. It was hard to imagine Dumbledore as ever having been so intimidating. So powerful. Not when he was like this. Draco could see how pale he was next to him, cold and skin clammy with droplets of sweat running down his face. What had happened to him? What had that horcrux even done to them?

Fenrir growled again.

“You do not give me orders, youngling,” he said, marching up to him. Draco let go of Dumbledore to see if he could stand on his own, “Watch your tongue or I’ll-”

“Or you’re going to what?” Draco said, turning back around and flicking out one of his knives. The tip glimmered for a moment before turning silver. Fenrir snarled. “Or you’re going to _what?”_ Draco asked again, stepping closer to them. “Kill me? Bite me?” He asked and pressed the knife right up beneath his chin, “Rip me apart with your claws?”

“I said watch your-”

“No, you watch your tongue,” Draco interrupted, “I’m the one who brought you here. That means I’m the one who is going to kill Dumbledore. If you think Voldemort won’t kill you for it then...bite… me.” He whispered. 

Fenrir lips curled back. 

“You won’t do it, will you? Because you know the Dark Lord values me. I’ve proven my worth and I will solidify it soon enough. He doesn’t have time to train another puppy. I can’t be a very good spy if I’m a blood lusting bitch like you, can I? So go ahead and do what you want. See what happens.” He said and waited. A beat of silence followed.

“Thought so,” Draco said and lowered the knife, “Now do me a favor and get the others.” He said with a nod towards the staircase. Fenrir’s eyes burned with hatred. Draco smiled back. “Good doggie.” He added when Fenrir finally stepped back. He growled lowly. Fenrir wasn't the smartest enemy to make, but if Draco could subdue him early on then it might be easier in the long-run. At the very least, the wolf was a fucking dumbass.

The others were thundering up quickly - Draco could hear Fenrir searching for Gibbon and Rowle. It was just him and Severus… and Dumbledore. 

Draco pulled out his wand. From beside him, he felt a slight brush of skin and saw a ripple in the air. He smiled a little. Harry. They wouldn't have time for a proper goodbye. He swallowed, letting his fingers reached out and brush against the silk.

"You need to go," he whispered, "Before they get here."

"I have my cloak," Harry's voice told him, "I won't do anything."

"You should leave-"

"I will," Harry interrupted, "But I want to wait here. In case you need me," He said and Draco bit his lip... then nodded. There was no harm in having him hide out with the cloak. It would be over soon enough... and then Sirius would get him somewhere safe. There was another shimmer and he felt something squeezed his hand before the pressure was gone. Draco tried not to let the wave of emotion that washed over him stay for very long.

“What are you doing, Draco?” Dumbledore finally asked, “You don’t want to-”

“To what?” Draco asked, “To be the one to kill you? You asked Severus to do that, right?” He said, jerking his chin over his shoulder. “Because that’s who you want Voldemort to kill when he inevitably finds out the wand was yours?” He asked, he turned to Severus. “Because you know too, don’t you? You said he didn’t have the Elder Wand, but I’m not stupid. You want to kill him to end its power and sacrifice yourself when the Dark Lord finds out.”

Silence. The answer was clear. 

“You keep throwing these chess analogies at me. I have one final one for you.” He said and Dumbledore looked at him with slight surprise, “I’m not going with your plan. I’m not playing your games,” he said, taking another step forward, “No more riddles. No more secrets or lies.” He said coldly and nodded at the wand in Dumbledore’s sleeve. “Give it to me.” 

Dumbledore stared.

“Now,” Draco said coldly, “Otherwise Voldemort will get it and the last thing we need is for the Elder Wand to be in his hands during the war. Give it to me before they get here.” He said and Dumbledore’s eyes flicked around for a moment.

“Severus needs to-”

“Severus needs to what?” Draco asked, “Kill you? So that you are the very last one to own that wand?” He asked and clicked his tongue, “You should have told us the truth from the beginning. At the very least you should have warned Harry. What the fuck was he supposed to do when Severus killed you? Why would you keep the fact you asked him to do that a secret?” He asked and Dumbledore closed his eyes. 

“There are things you are too young to understand-”

“I don’t really have time to grow old right now,” Draco told him wryly and walked forward to grab the wand. Dumbledore’s grip tightened for a moment before meeting his eyes. There was a hint of understanding beginning to bubble underneath before giving way to resignation. His fingers slowly loosened. Draco looked down. It didn’t look particularly foreboding. Just… a wand. Nothing to warrant it being any more significant than his own. He turned to stare Severus down. 

His godfather would not die over this _stupid_ wand. The fact he even tried sent his blood boiling.

“If Tom thinks you possess it-” Dumbledore began and then fell silent when Draco pocketed his own wand. There was a pause before a sharp crack filled the silence as Draco snapped the Elder Wand in half. Dumbledore’s lips pursed. 

“What are you doing?” He finally asked, “Draco, once he realizes what you’ve done…” He trailed off and Draco smiled, “You planned this.” He decided and gave a slight chuckle, “I knew you were planning something…” He mused. Draco raised an eyebrow. 

“You were wandless when I found you. After all, that is why I sent Montague as my first line of attack.” He said, tucking the remains of the Elder Wand in his robes. He would burn them later. Dumbledore grimaced, possibly realizing he had used poor Montague as a scapegoat. Voldemort would kill him as soon as he realized Montague was the one who had technically disarmed Dumbledore. Well, Draco would ensure that he understood that was how the wand worked. If not, then Draco would serve as the scapegoat. “What? I thought you liked sacrificing martyrs. I’m honestly surprised Harry wasn’t one of them.” Draco said coolly. 

“Minerva said you were organizing safety rooms within the school.” Dumbledore told him him calmly, looking almost pleased by the development. Maybe he was. It was hard to say. 

“For the students,” Draco said, “I set some traps for the Death Eaters. It was the best compromise I could think of.” He said, “Severus will be taking care of that part. I don’t want you to worry too much, sir. Whatever Death Eaters Voldemort sends to us we’ll take out fairly quickly. Tristam and Sadie are well up to the task of taking polyjuice potion to impersonate them. I even had Severus teach them occlumency and legilimency so they can play their roles well.”

Silence.

“Well,” Dumblefore said finally, “I am glad you have taken care of this so well. Though I worry you may have included too many people who could have turned against you.” He said softly. Draco shook his head. 

“That’s where you’re wrong, professor,” Draco told him, “You treat us all like pawns who can’t understand this grand plan of yours. It gets people hurt. Well," He said, stepping forward and bringing out his own wand again to press it slightly into his chest, "I am not your pawn. You’re mine.” 

There were a long couple seconds where Dumbledore looked at him with an unreadable gaze. Draco knew he hadn’t outsmarted him. Not completely, anyways. This one battle was only a speck in whatever grand scheme Dumbledore had weaved. Still, he would take it. He would goddamn take it rather than being used one more time.

“Very well,” Dumbledore said gently, “Just make sure you do this right, Draco.” He said and there was a pause where all Draco’s courage left him. He was just a boy with a wand, trembling in the face of his unyielding fate. “Think of your friends. Think of Harry.” Dumbledore said.

Maybe he couldn’t do it after all. Draco had killed people, sure, but… this somehow felt different. More intimidating. More final. 

“Tell me to do it,” Draco whispered and his voice cracked towards the end, “Ask me to just once and I… I’ll do it.” He said. 

There was a pause. For a second, Draco thought maybe he wouldn’t. Maybe in all of his grand planning he had found a loophole. A way to survive with that cursed hand. Maybe there was another way. Dumbledore’s eyes seemed uncertain for a moment - as if he wanted to say something he couldn’t.

“Draco,” he finally said solemnly, “Kill me. When the others get here do it immediately. Please.”

There it was. His final order from the person who was supposed to keep him sane during all of this. The doors slammed opened and immediately Death Eaters filed in with his aunt cooing behind him.

“Well done, Draco!” She purred and tilted her head, “Now fini-”

Draco held up a hand to cut her off. She wouldn’t be the one giving the order. If he was going to play this role he would do it right. He would make sure they didn’t see an ounce of mercy on him. He slowly moved his wand up from Dumbledore's chest to the base of throat. He absently tried to reach for Harry's presence. Trying to sense him. He had been right. It was helpful to know he was nearby. Draco looked Dumbledore in the eyes.

“The Dark Lord sends his regards,” Draco told him coolly and, for the first time since he was sorted, searched for whatever courage his house had to offer, “ _Avada Kedavra_.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shout out to my best friend who also had a sex seminar when he came out to his mom. This woman legit did her internet research and then asked her gay relatives to come over to make sure he had a thorough sex education and to this day it is the funniest thing to me. But also, like, it worked. He knew more about straight/gay sex than anyone else at our school. If we ever had any questions that was who we went to lol
> 
> Now, I'm sure you guys have figured out my words mean nothing by this point, but I THINK I'm gonna try to wait a week before the next chapter is up. I still got to write the ending in the epilogue so I'm gonna try to spend this week getting that together so that maybe the last couple chapters came come out a little closer together... tho like I said. My words mean nothing.


	16. Year Seven (In Which Draco Gets a Promotion and Also Kind of Quits)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys. We're almost done. Omg. One more year and an epilogue to go!!!
> 
> Quick Warning: The angst is back. I think if you made it through Year 5 you'll be fine, but it is a war and there are threats looming around every corner. I'll try to make sure the payoff exceeds the pain tho.
> 
> I wanted so badly to have the patience to wait and post this on Sunday... but I am weak. As of right now, I'm the middle of Chapter 18 so we'll see how far I can get before my impatience catches up with me lol.

This would have never happened if he had _just_ been sorted into Slytherin.

Well, actually... On second thought, that might not apply here. Just this once though.

“What happened to you?” Bellatrix asked, lounging idly from a chair. Draco looked down at his robes and grimaced. He was covered in blood. Again. One would think that with the killing curse that there would be no need to go around getting dirty, but no. As it turns out, being a good Death Eater required messing up his clothes quite frequently.

He had actually complained about it to Voldemort once when he was feeling particularly ballsy. 

“It isn’t that I mind the work,” Draco had told him, “Killing bloodtraitors and mudbloods will always be a joy, but they _always_ mess up my things. I quite like my things, you know.”

After all. If _anyone_ should understand feeling protective of their things (ahem, horcruxes, maybe?) it would be Voldemort. Sure enough, the man had laughed as if Draco had said something funny and sent him new robes every week much to everyone’s shock. 

Draco was pretty sure it was a joke. Voldemort had gotten oddly fond of him since he murdered Dumbledore. Not to say that ensured his safety in any way, shape, or form. It just allowed him to be a little more… argumentative at times. Also, Voldemort never publicly punished him, which was actually kind of nice…

That sounded bad. No, it wasn’t _nice_ , but it was a bonus to not have to writhe in pain in front of a bunch of people when he messed up. 

“I suppose this is what I get for having a Gryffindor in my midst,” Voldemort had once said after Draco had passionately argued for an hour over the fact they should be redirecting their attention to the ministry rather than focusing on the students at Hogwarts. “Arguing and _talking back_.” 

It had been really, really, _really_ lucky that Draco’s proposed plan to infiltrate the ministry worked so well because if it hadn’t… well. Maybe it was best not to dwell on that sort of thing. Even Severus had told him he was pushing his luck with that one. 

“A muggleborn gave me trouble,” Draco said, redirecting his thoughts back to Bellatrix. That was a lie. Draco hadn’t seen a single muggleborn in weeks. “Then I found Crabbe walking around with this,” he said, lifting up a coin. It was one of the DA coins Hermione had made in their fifth year. Draco was actually pretty pleased with his ingenuity here. He had shown them to Voldemort with an explanation of how they worked and told him it was probably how members of the resistance were contacting one another.

In truth, Draco didn’t _really_ think anybody was still using those coins, but they were easy enough to replicate so that if he got into a tight spot with another Death Eater... Well...

“Crabbe was a traitor?” Bellatrix asked, rising. She picked up the coin and grimaced, “Draco, while I do appreciate your dedication to weed out these traitors. You can’t-”

“Don’t worry, I asked the Dark Lord first. He gave me permission. Besides, I wasn’t the only one. Severus said he once saw Crabbe with one of those coins weeks ago and so did Nott.” He told her. 

Severus definitely lied and Draco may have used a subtle confounding charm to make Nott _think_ he had seen Crabbe with it. Listen, Draco needed to keep a close eye on the man anyway given that his son might pop up out of nowhere and try to ruin his cover.

He had this under control. 

“We need new blood,” Bellatrix sighed, “Or we’ll be outnumbered at this rate. No more, Draco, understand? At the very least we can take these traitors and send them on suicide missions so they’ll be a bit more useful.” She told him. Draco only shrugged before kneeling down to greet Harriet. He missed being able to have more in-depth conversations with her. He generally knew what she wanted or how she was feeling based on her size or color, but normally Harry told him other things like what she was thinking or if she needed something a bit more specific. 

He hoped she was coping okay with all of this. As it was, he wouldn't be keeping her much longer. Draco would be passing her to a... friend soon enough. 

“I think I’m going to pay a visit to some muggles,” he said and Bellatrix lifted a brow, “They’re moving Potter today.” He added. Bellatrix brightened.

“Oh, what fun. Am I right to assume we’ll greet them?” She asked, leaning forward. Draco snorted. Severus had already informed Voldemort they would be moving Harry. He didn’t specify the part of the plan, which included the fact there would be more than one Harry. Horribly risky, but clever all the same. 

“Of course, I’m going to test the waters a bit earlier. See if they trust me still.”

Oh, darling,” Bellatrix chuckled, “I would be very surprised if they still considered you one of them. They’re a bit… sensitive. That sort, I mean.” She told him, leaning back in the chair. Draco laughed.

“Sensitive or stupid. We’ll see which is more prevalent. If I get caught you’ll come after me?” 

“If I must,” she said and fixed him with a stern glare, “Remember your father, Draco. The Dark Lord isn’t pleased with him at the moment. You would do well to remember not to cause too much trouble.” 

Oh, as if he could forget. Slipping on a new set of robes, he lifted his hood back up, making sure to cover most of his face as he went out. He waited until he took a few more turns until he apparated.

“Hey, Vernon. It’s been a while.” 

“My _God-”_ Vernon cursed, leaning against the side of the house with a loud noise that sounded a bit like a drowning hippo. Draco chuckled darkly as he looked around Number 4 Privet Drive. It was honestly so boring that it hurt. The only thing out of place was that the front door was opened up, revealing most of the inside had been packed away. Draco tilted his head curiously, drifting closer as Vernon started loudly asking some questions while Dedalus Diggle whipped out his wand. 

Draco had seen the inside of the house just once. During that time he had admittedly only seen the living room and been more preoccupied with, uh, other things. Namely, clocking Vernon in the face. Now that there was no chaotic living room floo visits or candy experiments gone wrong, he could finally see what it might normally look like.

His father would scoff at the size. His mother would grimace at the rather ordinary taste of decor. Andromeda would shudder at how impersonal it felt. 

Draco went to the cupboard under the stairs.

“It’s weird to think I used to fit in there,” a voice said when Draco opened it up to peer inside. He bit back a smile before turning to find Harry a few feet away, watching. “Nobody told me you were coming.”

“I just told Bellatrix,” Draco said and straightened up. Harry frowned, “Severus told them your departure changed. He didn’t tell them the rest of the plan though.” He said, realizing as he said the words that Harry probably didn’t know the plan. He glanced back at the cupboard. “Besides, this might be the last time I can see Vernon. I couldn’t pass that up.” Draco said and kicked the cupboard door closed. 

“Yeah,” Harry muttered as he glanced at where the Dursleys were still with a rather alarmed looking Hestia Jones, “They’re thrilled to see you - _hey,_ ” He said sharply when Draco went to walk by. He grabbed his arm, practically throwing him into the wall. “Are you okay?” He asked.

Draco opened his mouth - a little confused by the question until he saw Harry’s eyes frantically flicking over his expression. Oh. Draco let his mental walls down. Harry, while never learning legilimency, still had always been able to read Draco fairly easily. Draco had simply been guarding himself around Death Eaters so much lately that he didn’t think to lower his mental shields. 

“Sorry,” he said and reached up to run his thumb over Harry’s jaw, “I’m fine. Just… tired.” He admitted, “Also, I am very annoyed with you.” He added, scowling a bit. Harry frowned. 

“What? Why? We haven’t even seen or heard from each other in months-”

“You almost made me look like the biggest idiot, Harry Potter,” Draco said, jutting a finger into his chest, “You know, we have weekly quotas of muggles to kill," he said and Harry flinched a bit, "And for the most part I'm pretty good at finding scum of the Earth to help my numbers, but last week I was a little lax," he admitted. Harry raised an eyebrow.

"And what does this have to do with me making you look like an idiot?"

"Well, when asked if I had anyone in particular in mind, I had to do some quick thinking about any muggle names I knew off the top of my head. Do you want to know what name I said?"

There was a pause before realization flickered over Harry’s face. It immediately morphed into amusement and then outrage.

“You were going to _kill_ Sherlock Holmes?!”

“How could you let me believe he was a real person?!”

“ _You were going to kill him if he was?”_

“That is not the point,” Draco told him flatly, “The point is that I said he was an example of a superior muggle and now I have a bunch of Death Eaters reading those damned books and asking if they could come with me to kill him!” He said. Harry put a hand over his mouth in horror. 

“...oh no.” 

“It’s hard enough to figure out what muggles are okay to kill, but now I have to find one that matches the description of a fictional character!” 

“How do you decide which ones are okay to kill?” Harry asked, sounding very concerned. Draco narrowed his eyes. “Sorry, not the point. I’m sure you have a, uh, very well-vetted process.” He said. Draco rolled his eyes. Someone help him. 

“I’ll be honest, Vernon might be on my list if I knew you would let me kill him.” He said and a small squeak sounded from beside them. Draco turned to see Dudley Dursley watching them with wide eyes. “Don’t worry,” Draco told him brightly, “I pinky promise I won’t cut open your throat while sleeping.” He winked. 

“Draco.” Harry sighed and let go of him, “I don’t think you’ve been formally introduced. This is my cousin. Dudley.” He said, “This is my boyfriend, Draco.” He added. Draco couldn’t help but smile a bit at the word. He liked it… maybe not the best way to introduce him when he was doubling as a Death Eater, but nice all the same. 

“Uh, nice to meet you,” Dudley managed. Draco jerked his head towards the staircase beside them. 

“So, you’re the one who had two rooms when he was in there?” He asked. Dudley licked his lips a moment before looking down at the ground. If Draco didn’t know any better he would say that was shame in his expression. Maybe that was his cue. Clearly, Dudley had come to say something to his cousin. He squeezed Harry’s hand once before going out to the front porch. 

“Hey, Sirius.” Draco greeted the black dog watching him. He had wondered what exactly was going on with this ‘move’. Harry had been staying with Sirius as far as he knew. He supposed they made a special trip to keep the Dursleys from being killed. A waste of time if you asked him. Why did Harry even have to come to this? Maybe he was the only one who could convince these idiots their lives were in danger.

“You shouldn’t be here,” Sirius said, switching back into his human form. Petunia gasped. Sirius responded by flicking her off, “And you shouldn’t have warned us about the Death Eaters. Voldemort will suspect-”

“I know what I’m doing,” Draco reminded him, stretching out slightly, “Believe it or not, I’ve become pretty good at this Death Eater thing,” he said dryly, twirling his wand between his fingers. Sirius gave him a long look. “How are you doing?” He asked when he didn’t respond. “I, uh, heard about R.A.B.” He said.

Sirius closed his eyes. 

“I’m… coping.” He said slowly, “It hurts a lot to know that I… didn’t know who he was when he died. That he died and I didn’t know all he had done and sacrificed-” He started before cutting himself off. Draco nodded. Apparently the locket that Harry and Dumbledore had almost died getting was a fake one… one that Regulus Black had left after turning against Voldemort.

“He was so much braver than I ever could be.” Sirius finally said, voice softening. Draco swallowed.

“Eh,” he finally said, “I just think he had a good role model.” He told him lightly and smiled, “To his credit though… what an epic way to die.” He said. Sirius scoffed. “I’ve decided if I get caught then I need a cool death. Like… maybe I can make an explosion so I kill us all in one go. That type of thing.”

“That isn’t funny, Draco.”

“Nonsense. It’s hilarious and practical,” he said and Sirius tilted his head, “Oh, whatever.” He said and looked out over the line of boring houses. Hestia was still trying to reason with the Dursleys and as Dudley and Harry exited the house. Draco watched curiously as the pair shook hands. 

“After this war is over I’m going to invite them to my house,” Sirius said conversationally, eyes watching Vernon thoughtfully, “To introduce him to my mom.”

“Oh, she’d _love_ that.” Draco chuckled and checked the time. He should get going. He stood up, grimacing, “By the way, I need you to punch me.” He added. Sirius shook his head. “It’s for-”

“Harry would kill me.” Sirius said flatly, “Do you remember when we had that encounter last month?” He asked. Draco nodded. Voldemort had sent him on the mission to confront the Order. It had probably been a test to see if he would actually hurt any of them. He had managed to prioritize… poor Emmaline Vance did unfortunately end up in St. Mungo’s for a good three weeks due to him. 

“Yeah, you gave me a good hit,” Draco said appreciatively. It had knocked him out for a couple moments, which served as another good excuse as to why he didn’t do more damage. “I also loved the string of names you called me.” He added. Sirius snorted.

“Yeah, Harry still hasn’t forgiven me for it.”

“He wasn’t even there?”

“Tonks told on me.”

“Ugh,” Draco said, rolling his eyes, “She’s a monster that one. Heard she got _married_.” he added. Sirius gave an odd look at that, lips thinning for a moment before giving a slight shrug. 

“Eloped is more like it,” Sirius chuckled, “It was nice though. Remus is happy.” He said, voice softening towards the end. Draco looked at him for a moment. Huh. He decided not to comment on that. “Are you going to Fleur and Bill’s wedding?” He asked. 

Draco laughed. _That_ might be pushing his luck a little bit.

“Unless it’s to ruin it… probably not. I guess I could show up in my animagus form. None of the Death Eaters know about that…” He mused. Sirius frowned. It was a little bit risky… to have the light side know while the dark side didn’t. If they found out there was really no justification other than screaming ‘I’M A TRAITOR’ at the top of his lungs. "We'll see." He said and then lightly kicked him, "And I would recommend speaking to Regulus' portrait if you still have any unresolved feelings. He might even know where the real locket it." He shrugged.

Sirius said something under his breath that probably wasn't nice. Draco grinned in return.

"You still have your watch?" Sirius asked, looking him over. Draco held up the chain to show. "Good. Ron said he hadn't heard from you in awhile. He was getting worried." He told him, voice slightly scolding. Oh. Right. Draco paused to grab it, pushing some reassurance through. Once he was certain the feeling was sent he let it dropped to his chest.

"I have to leave soon," Draco said, stretching slightly, "Tell Andromeda I said hi." He added, hopping up. She was still with the group of would-be Death Eaters Draco had sent her. Most of the Hogwarts kids were either in Durmstrang or Beauxbatons... for now. He knew Tristam, Zoe, and Sadie had made some arrangements to try to get them to Ilvermorny in America. It was farther and (from what Draco could tell) they weren't bloody doing anything in this war anyways. The least they could do was take some of the kids.

That reminded him, actually. He had some foreign calls to make...

"Don't be stupid! Also, tell Severus he owes me ten galleons." He added. Draco paused to turn and looked at him incredulously. Severus and Sirius were in contact? Willingly? They were betting? Sirius' grin widened, "We keep tally of how much you and Harry pine for the other. This week it was Harry who pined the most so I get the money." He explained with a shrug.

"Fuck you," Draco muttered. This was _not_ what he meant when he said he wanted Sirius and Severus to get along. Giving one last glower, he marched back to the Dursleys and where Harry was looking more and more frustrated.

"I need to go," he said, placing a hand on Harry's arm, "Also, if you don't get into the damn car then I'm going to kill one of you. You have three seconds." He added to the Dursleys. Vernon went bright red.

"You wouldn't _dare-"_

"One," Draco began and watched when Dudley gave Harry one last nod before heading towards the car, "Two-" Vernon and Petunia scrambled after him. Draco shook his head. They really were a horrid bunch. He turned back to Harry.

"Already?" He asked and as an apology, Draco kissed him, "Fine." He sighed and looked around. It felt oddly exposed... just being on the street like this. Draco knew it was safe though. He had checked at least three different times to make sure he wasn't being tailed. Not that Voldemort ever would tail him, but it was good to be cautious.

"I'll see you soon," Draco promised, "I think there may be a horcrux at the ministry. I need to do some digging to confirm, but I'll try to let you know soon." He promised. Harry hummed and when Draco went to turn away, pulled him back to kiss him again, "Severus and Sirius are gambling on us by the way," Draco said when they parted, "So if you want to jinx him... go for it." He added, chuckling at the outrage on Harry's face.

"Be safe!" Harry told him and Draco waved it away.

"Yeah, yeah. Just worry about not dying!" He called back and disapparated before he could get a response. There was a pop as Draco entered what looked to be a very small, poor dungeon. From beside him, there was a clatter along with a sharp yelp of alarm.

"Who the fuck are you?!"

"I'm Draco," he greeted, "You're Jenkins?" He asked the muggle. There was a few indignant splutters as Draco curiously looked around at the meager conditions, "I'm here to see if you're guilty." He added and the man sat up, furious eyes latching onto him.

"Guilty? They sent a fucking kid in a dress in here to see if I'm guilty?" He asked. Draco paused.

"...these are robes."

"Hey, I don't care. Robes, dress, whatever you want to call them. I'm wearing trousers and sticking with that." Jenkins grumbled. Draco blinked a few times. He knew muggles didn't wear robes, but the fact they actively couldn't differentiate them from dresses was a new development he was not prepared for. Part of him wanted to learn more about this, but he had other things to do.

"Right," he said slowly and held up a vial, "I can't explain everything to you. Just know that I made it so nobody can hear us or will come this way. I need you to drink this and tell me what happened the night you murdered Byron Jacobson." He started and Jenkins chuckled darkly, falling back on his poor excuse for a bed so that it squeaked loudly.

"Are you the reason some of the inmates are going missing?" He asked and Draco shrugged. Muggle prisons were full of great victims. Usually, he could tell who the sucky ones were based on how the reacted when he entered. Still, the veritaserum was a helpful tool as well. He was surprised to learn just how many innocent people they locked up in these things. Perhaps it wasn't just the wizarding judicial system that was flawed. "Holy shit, a bleeding kid is out there chocking us up with drugs and picking us off. Where do you take them?"

"My boss," Draco answered, leaning against the wall, "Here. Drink." He added, sliding the vial towards him. Jenkins snorted.

"Nah, I'll save you the trouble. I'm guilty." He said. Draco paused.

This... had not happened before.

"Oh, um... care to elaborate?"

"I killed him," Jenkins said with a shrug, "I had to kill him so I killed him."

Draco looked around the cell before slowly grabbing the vial again to slip into his robes. He wasn't for sure what to do with this information. At this point, he was used to hearing awful stories from people who had assaulted and gutted out people for various reasons whether it be some weird sexual gratification or revenge or something else entirely.

This though? This was weird.

"He... had to be killed?" Draco repeated and shook his head, "What does that mean?"

"Christ. You just appear out of nowhere dressed like some sort of Gandalf from that book my kid keeps talking about and ask me why I killed someone?" He asked. Draco didn't understand anything that was happening right now, "I just got caught up with some gangs, alright? I needed some money and so I asked for a loan. The next thing I know they had my kids and I have to kill this guy to keep them from getting killed. What would you have done?" He asked, a bit defensively before waving his hand, "Eh. You're too young to know that shit."

"I wouldn't say that," Draco said, a bit uncomfortably, "And, um, you told... your government this?"

"Yeah?"

"And you still ended up in here?"

"Was there anywhere else to put me?"

Draco sat down on a bench. That was a good question. One Draco should also be thinking about. What _would_ they do with him when the war was over? Draco had killed people. Maybe it had been to keep himself alive - to keep his friends and family alive, but did that actually matter? People were still dead and Draco did it. He opened his mouth a few times before feeling his shoulders slump. Jenkins frowned.

"Uh, kid? You alright?" He asked.

"I'm not a kid," Draco told him, voice completely monotone. Jenkins snorted and got off of the bed, walking the meager three inches to kneel in front of Draco, "I'm seventeen," he added, "And I've certainly done things to throw myself into adulthood." He added darkly. Jenkins raised an eyebrow.

"Look, I'm pretty sure you're a figment of my own mind here to make me confront my own mortality or some shit," he said and Draco frowned at him, "So _you_ aren't the one allowed to have a mental breakdown," he told him. Draco snorted, "And... yes. Yes, you are a kid. Seventeen is a kid. Sorry." He said and patted his knee. There was a pause in which he patted the fabric, "Huh. That's a nice dress."

"They're robes."

"Eh, whatever," Jenkins yawned, "Are you here to kill me?" He asked, tilting his head, "Like an angel of death or something?" He mused. It was then that Draco realized he had put on his mask before entering. There was a stab of annoyance at the realization his age had been deduced by voice alone before he removed it. Jenkins frowned at him. "Oh, you're a fucking ghost."

"Alright," Draco muttered, "That's unnecessary."

"How did you die? Malnutrition?"

"What the Hell is wrong with you?" Draco asked, "I come to find people to kill and now you're heckling me!" He said, throwing up a hand. Jenkins lifted a brow, "Don't worry, you're safe. You seem alright," Draco told him as he ran a hand over his face, "Though if you know anybody who sucks let me know. Any kid killers or something."

"Well... Darryl ate my pudding."

Draco was too tired for this.

"Seriously?"

"Hey, you're the one playing God," Jenkins said, hopping back up to lay on his cot, throwing an arm over his eyes, "Who are you to decide who lives or dies?"

"You had to decide between your kids and some random guy," Draco pointed out. Jenkins peeked under his arm to look at him, "That's kind of my position. Granted, I did it to myself, but... I don't know. I have people I got to keep safe," he said, rubbing the back of his neck, "I knew there would be a war eventually. Now that it's here I'm just doing what I have to. You get that, right?"

Jenkins hummed.

"Sure," he said and propped himself up on his elbows, "You seem kind of young to be talking about wars," he mused and then shook his head, "I guess that isn't unusual though," he mused. Draco shrugged.

"You know, I think this is the longest conversation I've ever had with a muggle."

Jenkins blinked.

"With a _what?"_

"My uncle is a muggleborn. So is my best friend. I've seen her parents too, but... never an actual conversation. Ted took me to a footbol game once and this muggle girl flirted with me. That only lasted a few minutes though." He mused. Jenkins frowned at him, "Don't worry about it. You're going to forget this conversation ever happened." He added. Jenkins chuckled.

"I hope not," he said, "I haven't talked to anyone in three days. I'm going to relish this for the rest of the week."

...well, then. Draco stood up. He liked Jenkins. The man was very strange, but Draco figured that was how muggles were. Maybe when the war was over he would break him out and buy him some pudding. For now, he'd leave his memory alone.

Who would believe him anyways?

* * *

Funnily enough, Draco did end up attending Fleur and Bill’s wedding. To ruin it. Yeah. That part was a little disappointing. Especially because it looked like it would have been beautiful. The other Death Eaters kind of sprung the whole thing on him, but at least he got to see Fleur in her wedding dress. She looked stunning as she punched Avery so hard that his mask came off. Amazing.

"YOU COWARDS!" Sirius yelled and Draco immediately shot up a spell into the sky (a signal to let the others know which one he was) before striking his first attack. This part was actually a little fun. If you took out the deadly curses, it was kind of just playful fighting. Harry seemed to agree as they went back and forth deflecting hits and parrying spells. Well, he was pretty sure it was Harry, anyways. His animagus smell said it was. It appeared he was disguised for the event, which Draco deeply appreciated.

"You're pretty talented for a Death Eater," Harry called lightly and then switched his point attack to send a jinx towards Goyle (who had gotten a smidge too close to Sirius). Sirius, for his part, was still using the knife Draco had let him have to ward off his attackers with a vengeance Draco was a little concerned by. It probably had something to do with Regulus, "Who taught you that reductor curse?"

"My boyfriend," Draco answered and grinned when he managed to 'accidentally' hit Avery with a curse over Harry's shoulder, "Rumor has it he's one of the more talented duelers at Hogwarts... I don't see it thought. I'm better." He shrugged and then ducked to avoid a rogue spell. Ron groaned.

"Seriously? Now?" He asked as Hermione appeared by his elbow with a glower.

"We need to _leave_ ," Hermione said, blocking a few incoming spells of her own. Oh. Right. Draco lowered his wand so that Harry's last knockback jinx sent him following to the ground. When he looked back up, the three of them had gone. He felt a stab of regret. Part of him wanted to have gone with them. Being on the run with them seemed much more appealing than this...

Whatever. This was his choice. Mad-Eye had died during the escort to get Harry back to the Weasleys. Maybe if Draco had been there instead of with Jenkins... he pushed the thought away. Now wasn't the time. He had to figure out - Fleur was fine. She was looking for - _shit_. Where was Gabrielle? Draco straightened up, flicking his wand up to repel another flash of red light sent his way. He found Gabrielle just in time to see Macnair raise his wand at her.

“ _Avada Kadavra!”_ He said, sending the man crumbling to the ground. Gabrielle’s eyes widened as she practically tripped in an effort to get to him. “Are you okay?” He asked, rushing over to her. He lowered his his mask and looked around. There was so much chaos that nobody could have noticed, right? Gabrielle nodded. “Okay, run. If anyone asks, say you saw someone on your side kill him, okay?” He said and then grabbed another one of his knives, "Wait, you remember how to stab, right?" He asked her. Gabrielle gave a weak nod, eyes blown wide. "Okay. Here." He said, slipping her the knife. "I don't think it will work the same for you as it does me, but it's something." He told her.

Gabrielle took the knife with a trembling hand.

"Why are you still with them?" She whispered. Draco stared. She had just turned twelve. She didn't know. Just as he tried to think of a good answer, Gabrielle jerked away suddenly. There was a flash of silver and Draco stood up to push her away only to realize Avery was on the ground at his feet with blood gushing out of his throat. Gabrielle glowered down at him.

"You ruined my dress," she told Avery coldly and then spit on him before turning to Draco, "I told you I could stab well," she added. Draco didn't know how to respond so he did his best to make sure Avery was actually dead before shoving her towards where Fleur was looking around wildly for her mother and sister. Okay. Right.

"Come on, Malfoy. You're getting slow!" Sirius called and Draco turned to find his father had joined in. Oh, great, "I heard your son joined the family business," Sirius continued taunting and deflected a curse with the knife Draco had given him. "Great job. Parent of the year. Now you can get _both_ your children killed-"

Draco should probably intervene.

"BE CAREFUL!" Draco yelled as he slid up next to his father, "THE MINISTRY SAYS HE CAN KILL US ALL WITH ONE CURSE!"

"Oh, is that Malfoy Jr himself?" Sirius asked brightly, giving him a sly grin before throwing a tickling charm his way. Draco shook his head and deflected it. Honestly. Was he really so fearful of Harry that he wouldn't even throw a proper curse at him? Draco struck back. "Oh, no. I think I angered him." Sirius snorted as he ducked and held up the knife, "Thank you for the gift by the way! I dearly cherish it-"

"Give that _back!"_ Draco growled, playing along before stumbling slightly so he could knock his father's spell to the side.

"Are you alright?" Lucius asked him lowly. Draco glanced over at him.

"I'm fine," he said, trying to sound nonchalant. His father liked to check in at the most bewildering of times it seemed. Well, maybe not bewildering. Just... whenever he saw Draco in general. He would always whisper to make sure he was okay. Draco wasn't sure why. Before his sorting, Lucius had no qualms about spoiling his son mercilessly, but he had never really been attentive like this.

Draco supposed he _was_ a Death Eater serving under Voldemort's reign, but... he just wasn't used to it.

In the end, Sirius had decided to reach into his robes to bring out some of Fred and George's Miraculous Mystic Mayhem Makers (a true Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes advocate through and through) and sent this whole place lit up with fireworks before apparating to make his grand escape. Draco lowered his wand and cursed.

"Honestly," Donovan said as he stepped forward to nudge Macnair's body with his foot, "My uncle's wedding was more eventful then this. This was just us crashing and them running." He grumbled, tucking his wand away. "Draco! Come help me grab this dumbass for the Dark Lord."

"Another inferius?" He said, flicking his wand so the body levitated. Why Donovan didn't think to do this himself was unclear. As it turned out, clever Death Eaters weren't always common.

"He served our lord in life. He might as well in death," Donovan shrugged... then flicked his wand so that Avery's body was also lifted from the ground, "Don't worry, Lucius. We'll get Black soon enough." He added and it was then that Draco turned to see his father had taken his mask off, looking solemnly at where the Burrow was burning in the background. Draco hadn't even noticed it caught fire. The fireworks might have done it, but he could easily see one of his colleagues also setting the house aflame.

"Father?" He asked and Lucius pursed his lips.

"Did you spend much time here? Growing up?" He asked.

"At... the Burrow?" Draco frowned, following his gaze, "Um, yeah. Usually a couple times during the summer or something. Why?" He asked.

His father didn't respond. He looked far too lost to his own thoughts. The others had already started leaving - pops following them all disappearing now that they had their fill of violence for the evening so that only Draco, Lucius, and Macnair's floating body remained.

"I let her go."

"Who?"

"The Weasley woman. We should have kept her. To interrogate on where Potter might be."

Molly? He had Molly? Draco hadn't even noticed. He thought... how could he had not noticed?

"But... you let her go?" Draco said and Lucius nodded. He looked so... vacant. Draco didn't remember him like this at all. There wasn't one thing that had changed exactly. Just a million cracked pieces stuck together. "Why?" He asked slowly, looking around to make sure nobody could hear the answer.

"I saw your trunk," he finally said, "You had one of her sweaters." He said - as if that was an explanation of any sort, "She loved you when we couldn't." He said simply and then turned away from the house. Draco felt his breath hitch for a moment. He wasn't sure what to say to that. So he turned to watch the smoke rise and fire crackle before turning to follow.

* * *

Voldemort had... not been happy with the outcome.

Granted, he wasn't as angry as he could have been - the man did just take over the Ministry of Magic after all - but he was a little annoyed that he sent them all to this wedding only for them to have killed exactly... zero people. Also, they captured... zero people. Oh, and guess what? Two of their people were dead. Rowle and Dolohov claimed they had gone after Harry Potter, but got beaten in a duel, which hadn't been the smartest thing to say.

Luckily, Draco was considered a late reinforcement so most of the ire wasn't directed at him. He figured he would stay low for a few days just in case. He squeezed the watch around his neck patiently and waited for Ron's response. A warmth followed soon after along with the feeling of reassurance. Good. The others were safe then.

"Hey, Jenkins," he greeted a few weeks later and put down a few cups of pudding at the edge of his bed, "What do you have for me?" He asked as he grabbed a piece of parchment and quill. Jenkins had been a _remarkable_ ally. Turns out, some of the worst people in the muggle world weren't even locked up. It was bewildering, but worked out well enough for Draco.

"Davidson says he knows the names of people who run a sex ring," Jenkins told him and held up an envelope, "I already got them for you." He said and tossed them over, "My turn. Who is Andrea?" He asked and Draco took a bite of pudding for himself. He had gotten a letter the last time he visited. Jenkins was still fifty-fifty on whether Draco was real or not, but he did ask some questions in attempt to figure out if his brain could make such things up on its own.

"The President of the Magical Congress in America," Draco snorted and flipped through some of the names Jenkins had given to him, "I told them not to write me, but apparently they don't use discretion in America," he mused and then paused, "That reminds me, actually. Does anyone here speak Japanese?"

"Probably," Jenkins shrugged, "Why?"

"I'm assuming they want the Dark Lord dead too, but I might need a translator..." Draco said, running his finger down the list. This was actually kind of a long. There were a good thirty names. Jenkins hummed.

"Who is this Dark Lord again?" He asked, "Sounds like you should just kill _him_."

"Yeah, we're working on that," Draco chuckled, "Think... Hitler but without the concentration camps. Though, to be frank, I'm sure he's going to try that at some point." He added darkly. He was a little surprised that hadn't happened already. The man was around when the second World War was happening, right? Perhaps Draco shouldn't question it. Clearly, it was a blessing.

"Hm, so are you one of those then?" He asked and Draco tilted his head, glancing up, "The type of people who he's trying to kill - whoever they are."

"Muggleborns."

"Muggleborns," Jenkins repeated and pursed his lips, "Are you one of those?"

"No, I'm a pureblood," Draco said, "Though, technically, I'm also a bloodtraitor and he's trying to kill those too so I guess maybe I am on his list..." He mused thoughtfully and shrugged, "Truthfully, he's more obsessed with trying to kill my boyfriend."

"The one with the messy hair and pretty smile?"

"Yep. I didn't say it was pretty though," he added and Jenkins snorted. Draco rolled his eyes. He supposed he wasn't wrong, but still... "Okay, if you can find that person who can translate for me get me his name and cell number." Draco told him, standing up, "Also, my offer still stands to break you out." He added. Jenkins grinned at him, eyes alright with amusement.

"No, thank you. I have my own plans to get out if here without your mumbo jumbo nonsense." He said. Draco was a little offended they were calling magic 'mumbo jumbo' but sure. If Jenkins wanted to stay then who was he to judge? Bidding his friend goodbye, Draco apparated again.

Maybe he would stop by the apothecary to pick up some herbs for his father... maybe make a calming drought or something. Then he could figure out his next move. He needed to make more muting potions. Not that he had used his last batch (thank God), but it had expired and Draco needed to make sure he always had some on him in case he ever was outed and needed to keep himself from revealing anything. Before he could decide, hands grabbed at his robes - pulling him sharply down a side alley right outside Flourish and Blott's. Draco reacted instantly, rolling around so that he was on top of the person and kicked down hard. There was a sharp yelp as Draco yanked out his remaining knife to point it at the person's chest as he used the other to raise his wand.

"Easy, _easy!_ Draco, it's me!"

Draco jerked back, recognizing with a sense of alarm that he _knew_ this person.

"Blaise?!" He whispered and looked over his shoulder before pulling him further into the alley, "What the Hell are you doing here?" He whispered, "It's dangerous for you to be out of the safe house-"

"Have you seen Theo?" Blaise interrupted him. Draco stared.

"Have I -? No! Why are you looking for Theo?" He asked, shaking his head. Everyone was apparently looking for Theo. Blaise groaned, running a hand over his face before shoving a piece of parchment in his hand. Hurriedly, Draco unfolded it to see a neatly printed words sprawled on the parchment.

_Blaise,_

_I know I shouldn't write letters with you in hiding so I'll only send this one. My brother is dead. I'll have to find the Hallows on my own. I also have another idea for how we can launch an attack against Voldemort. There was a story Draco told me about his first year... I'm going to do some digging to confirm it, but if I'm right then we might have a serious advantage. I know you and Pansy were hesitant about joining me, but I'm going to leave the coordinates for where I'll be next week if you want to come. Thank you for... everything. Remembering all that had happened to me wasn't easy, but you did make it bearable._

_Stay safe,_

_-T_

What? Draco had no idea what this was. He glanced up at Blaise.

"You and Pansy want to join him?"

"Pansy already did," Blaise said, snatching the parchment back, "I didn't think it was safe to both go at the same time so we separated to make sure we weren't being tailed. Pansy was supposed to write with their new location, but I never heard anything."

This was... a lot to digest. Blaise and Pansy had left the safety of Andromeda's to join Theo? Knowing that Death Eaters were after him? Knowing that if they were caught and told where Andromeda's safe house was that their unbreakable vows would kill them? What motivation did they have for any of this? Blaise seemed so earnest as well. He was wringing his hands, eyes flicking around nervously as he waited for Draco to give him some sort of direction. Somehow, despite the untidy robes and clear lack of sleep, he still looked refined and poised.

"Why?" He asked. It was the only question that felt worth knowing in these moments. Blaise scowled at him, "You never spent any time around Theo and you didn't want to be involved in the war. What changed?" He asked.

"I spent time around him in the safe house," Blaise shrugged, "We all lived there for a good year, you know. We're friends."

Huh. Draco didn't really think about it but... even before he got his old memories back he would have still made new ones. He didn't actually consider that the dynamics of the people who were bunkered down together might change. After all, Theo had been told (by yours truly) that it was his idea to go to the safe house. Now that he thought about it...

"So now you want to fight?"

"You're useless," Blaise grumbled and Draco threw up his hands. He hadn't asked for this! "Do you at least know what he's talking about in the letter?" He asked and Draco pinched the bridge of his nose.

"No. No, I don't, Blaise. Nicholas Flamel's stone, maybe? It was destroyed though so I can't..." Draco trailed off. An idea whispered in the back of his mind. "I think," Draco said slowly, "He might be looking for the Mirror of Erised."

"The what?"

"It was what Dumbledore used to hide the stone in during our first year. Theo might be trying to do something similar... though I'm not sure what he would hide in it. Do you think he's found a Deathly Hallow?" He asked, brows furrowing together. That didn't seem right. The Elder Wand was gone. Draco was sure that Harry's cloak was one from the story and Theo wouldn't need to trap a resurrection stone. Could he be trying to hide a horcrux? That would mean he was on Voldemort's side though and it seemed unlikely he changed allegiances if he was dragging Pansy and Blaise into the mix.

What the Hell was he doing?

"Well, where is the mirror?" Blaise asked. Finally. A question Draco could actually answer.

"Hogwarts in the Room of Requirement. I saw it when putting vanishing cabinet in there last year." He shrugged. Blaise nodded, "Remember," Draco warned, "You have an unbreakable vow that would kill you if you try to betray me." He said and when Blaise rolled his eyes, continued, "Take this." He said, pulling out a flask, "It's polyjuice potion. I put some of my hair in it so you can use it to get into the castle-"

"You just have that?"

"You're not the first person I've had to sneak in there," Draco told him with a wave, "Alecto and Amycus are actually Sadie and Tristam. You can trust them. If you see any other Death Eater there then they're real deal and you need to figure out a place to hide. If you see a blue ribbon on a door that means there is passageway or hidden room that you can go into. The students will help you. Neville has maps of all the safe places to go." He added. Blaise nodded, looking a bit overwhelmed by the instructions, but accepted the flask with a nod. "Good. Don't be stupid." Draco advised.

"Bold words coming from you." Blaise grumbled and raised his hood, "Thank you though and... good luck with all you're doing." He added. Draco smiled weakly.

"How are the others? Are they safe? Is my aunt alright?" He asked. Blaise chuckled.

"Yeah, they're good. Your aunt keeps everyone in line," he said. Draco nodded. Naturally. "There are a few others that kind of want to fight," he added. Draco tilted his head, "Theo really knew how to rile them up, I guess." He said, a hint of a smile touching his lips. Draco raised an eyebrow. Huh. Given how they last left things off... well, Draco hadn't been sure what Theo's next move would have been. He clearly had won Blaise over, which was impressive. Blaise - during the time Draco had known him - was someone who preferred upper class mannerisms and hiring people to do dirty work. Theo must have given some pep-talk to get him interested in fighting.

"Stay safe, Blaise." Draco said and patted the side of his arm.

Weird. Just... weird.

And things just kept getting weirder. Harry found a horcrux. Well, Draco assumed he had. There had been chaos at the ministry. Prisoners were released, Umbridge was robbed, and her very important locket had gone mysteriously missing. It was a little stressful, but Draco was confident Harry and the others were safe for the time being. Voldemort seemed far too interested in finding the Elder Wand to pay them much mind anyways. Gregorovitch had been his most recent victim, which was making Draco a little nervous. Voldemort would find out soon enough that Grindelwald had the wand and then...

Well, either Montague or Draco's days were numbered.

“Draco, we have a treat for you!” Jugson called. Draco rolled his eyes as he entered the dining hall of the manor to see a small group hovering around a heavy oak door on the end of the hall. Draco tensed, “Hey-”

“Get the Hell away from there!” He snapped and a few of them immediately scrambled away from the door. Jugson blinked. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Easy,” Jugson frowned, “We just needed a place to put him-”

“We have cells for that,” Draco said coldly, “You don’t use this room. Ever. Do you understand?” He asked. A few of them were nodding quickly, cringing away from Draco’s sudden burst of anger. Compared to the rest of them, Draco was relatively even-tempered. Still, he had done enough to let them know not to get on his bad side.

“Duly noted,” Jugson told him with slightly narrowed eyes, “But before you start throwing curses just know this is a… top priority prisoner.” He smiled. Draco frowned. God, please don’t let it be Harry. “We figured you would be the first who would want to have fun with him.” He said.

Draco threw his mental walls up - determined to give away nothing. He hated when they brought him people to kill. At least when he hunted his own he was able to seek out those who wouldn’t make him feel quite as guilty. It was surprisingly easy to sniff out muggle murderers and rapists and abusers. It might still be wrong, but at least he wasn’t killing someone innocent.

“Don’t tell me you found Sherlock Holmes,” he said, praying this poor man wasn’t some idiot who resembled the character.

“Better.” 

Draco frowned and cracked open the door. Jugson snorted and pushed him further inside before letting the door slam shut behind him. He turned and immediately felt his heart drop.

No. No, he took it back. He took it back, he took it back, he _took it back-_

He would kill any muggle. Any of them. It didn’t matter who it was. It could be Mother freaking Teresa. Just not… not this… not…

“Hey, kid,” Ted greeted from the bed he was sitting on. Draco swallowed. Shit. _Shit_. He glanced around the room. It had been years since he had ever stepped foot in here. He tried to remember if there were any alternative exits. Ted held up a toy doll. “Cassi’s room?” He guessed. 

“Yes,” Draco said and crossed the floor to look around, “Fuck, Ted. What happened?” He asked. Ted grimaced, “Nevermind. It doesn’t matter. We need to find a way to get you out of here.” He muttered, feeling panic rise. Draco had been looking for ways to break out of the cells. He wasn’t prepared to break anyone out of Cassi’s room.

“I don’t think that’s an option.”

“It has to be,” Draco told him and ran a hand over his face, “Okay. Just… let me think. I can distract them outside for a bit. I’ll make you a map of the house-”

“Draco,” Ted said gently and stood up, grimacing slightly as he did so. He looked awful. His hair had changed from golden blonde to practically red with dirt and blood. His face was scraped up, lip busted, and robes shredded. It hurt to look at him. “If I escape they’ll know it was you,” he said and sighed, “And even if you spun your miracle work… I don’t think I would get out of here.” He told him.

Draco stared.

“I won’t let them kill you.”

“No,” Ted agreed and walked over, putting a hand on either side of his arms. Something about the action sent Draco’s blood into a freezing stop. “They don’t plan to kill me. They want Andromeda and the kids.” He said gently. The kids. Draco closed his eyes. All the Slytherins Draco had snuck out. There might even be some other Hogwarts students with her. 

“I won’t let them get you,” Draco said and glanced over his shoulder, “ _Crucio.”_ He added towards a trunk, loud enough for those outside to hear. Ted gave a sad smile as a bang sounded before giving a fake cry of pain. “I can figure it out. Just... give me some time.”

“We don’t have time,” he said quietly, “I knew what was going to happen the moment they caught me.” He said. Draco shook his head. No. _No_. “I have a huge favor to ask you-”

“No. Absolutely not. We’re not doing this.” Draco told him, voice shaking, “Ted, _don’t-”_

“They’re going to torture me, Draco. Eventually I could break and tell them where 'Meda is.”

“That’s not going to happen.” 

“Draco-”

“No. _No_ , fuck!” Draco hissed and spun around to kick a dresser, sending it tumble to the ground, “That isn’t fair. You can’t-” He cut himself of, trying to regain any control he had left. Ted only smiled sadly. He looked seconds away from crying, lip wobbling slightly as he looked at the ground. “I’ll… I’ll figure something out… I… I can… I’ll say you’re not really you. You’re under the influence of polyjuice potion-”

“Do you honestly think there is a scenario where you can save me and not be outed?” Ted asked him calmly. Draco closed his eyes. “This is why you became a Death Eater. To protect Andromeda and Dora and Harry and Hermione and-”

“And you!” Draco shot back, fighting to keep his voice as low as it needed to be. He threw another curse at the wall to keep those outside the room entertained. A shelf of Cassi’s toys fell to the ground with a loud clatter. One stuffed bear rolled over, singing a uppity song about stars as it fell. “I did this to protect all of you! Not - not whatever this is.” He managed. Ted sighed as the bear continued to play in the background.

_Twinkle, twinkle, little star_

“You can’t protect everyone. You know that.”

_Pure and good that’s what you are_

“I - stop,” Draco said, pacing, “If they find out I’m not with them then fine. We can both run.”

“No, you need to save that card if _Harry_ gets caught,” Ted said sharply, “Draco. Look at me. You only do that if Harry walks through that door - do you understand?” He asked. Draco stared. “He is the only person that isn’t allowed to die. That’s the only person you blow your cover for. Without him we can’t win this war. The same can’t be said for me.”

“That isn’t true-”

_Up above the world so high_

“ _Draco_ ,” Ted said and impatiently yanked at his arm, “I know you don’t want to do this. It’s okay that you don’t, but… I have to protect my family. My wife and my daughter and my… my grandson.” He said, voice catching. Draco looked at him.

_A constellation in the sky_

“Grandson?” He whispered. Ted nodded. 

“He isn’t born yet, but… I want him to live a time where this war is over, Draco,” he said, voice catching as he looked down, “Andromeda gave up everything to be with me. Absolutely everything. Her family. Her home. Her money. Even her name.” He said and shook his head, “I always told myself I would give up everything for her too,” he said. Draco looked at the ceiling, taking long breaths to hold back tears, “Now it’s time for me to do that.”

“Ted-”

“I don’t want to be tortured,” Ted whispered, squeezing his arm so tightly it hurt, “And I don’t have a wand to do it myself.” He said.

No. No. No. No. No. No. 

“Draco,” he prompted and there was a long minute of silence before finally, “ _Please_.” 

_Twinkle, twinkle, little star_

Draco hugged him. He could hear the others outside, sounding antsy. Forcing himself to take a deep breath, he steadied himself. Ted hugged him back tightly, practically squeezing the air out of him as he gripped at his robes.

“It might not mean much from me,” he murmured in Draco’s ear, “But I am so goddamn proud of you.” He said. Draco halted in raising his wand, making sure Ted couldn’t feel the point of it in his side as he continued to hug back as well as he could.

“I’m going to keep making you proud.” Draco promised and his voice broke at the end. 

_Pure and good that’s what you are_

Draco opened his mouth... held his breath...

And apparated.

Usually, most houses (including this manor) were equipped with anti-apparation jinxes. Only house-elves and the owners of the houses themselves could bypass them. Luckily, since his parents technically had reclaimed him, he was able to leave while the Death Eaters waiting outside the door wouldn't be able to follow them until they were off of their property. They probably had heard him apparate, but maybe he had bought enough time to get them to safety.

" _Draco-"_ Ted gasped when they hit the ground, "Are you insane?!" He yelled. Draco groaned, rolling over as he tried his best not to throw up. He hadn't apparated with another (living) person before. It was way harder than it needed to be, "They're going to come after you! Do have any idea-"

"I have more than an idea, Ted." Draco said as he got up, "Go. Run. They know my magic at this point. They can follow it. Not yours though. Apparate someplace safe."

"If you think I'm leaving you then you're out your goddamn mind-"

"Go meet your grandson, Ted," Draco said, getting up, "Do you honestly think I didn't plan for something like this to happen? I have it under control. Go." He said, waving him away. Ted narrowed his eyes. From his neck, Draco's watch ticked with a slight taunt.

"What is this plan of yours then? I can help-"

"No, no time," Draco shook his head, "You're going to have to trust me. You trust me, right?" He asked. Ted hesitated, "Please!" He added, voice growing panicked. He might have to apparate them again if he didn't leave soon. Draco had no idea what to do. No idea what he could do-

"You have a plan?" Ted said uncertainly, "You know you'll be fine?"

"If you stay, I die. If you leave, I live." Draco simplified it as calmly as he could. That seemed to snap some sense into him because he gave a brisk nod. He opened his mouth to say more, but Draco pointed his wand at him in warning. " _Go_." He managed and Ted gave him one last look of unwavering trust before a small pop followed and he was gone.

“My, my, my… Draco, what is this?” 

Bellatrix. Draco’s heart stopped as he spun around. Had she been in the manor? No, she had been running an errand, right? How did she find him so fast? Her lip was bleeding, the side of her face bruised from wherever she had been previously as she raised her wand.

Full disclosure: Draco did not actually have a plan on how to get himself out of this unharmed.

“It isn’t what it looks like,” he whispered evenly, “Bellatrix. You need to trust me.”

“Oh, but I have, darling nephew,” she sneered, “I let you near our Dark Lord and I let him put faith in you.” She hissed, walking closer, “For you to betray that trust…” She clicked her tongue, “You’ll pay for that. You… and mommy...and daddy.” She promised, darkly as she took another step towards him. Draco stepped back.

“You’re making a mistake.” Draco tried again. Bellatrix smiled. It sent a shiver down his spine. Clumsily, he went to grab for his wand, but Bellatrix tilted her own in warning.

"You're good, Draco. I'll give you that. You can hide your tracks well, but you do have slip-ups," she told him, "Things have always been too convenient for you, darling. You know just enough to be helpful, but never to the point where any of your precious little friends die. You couldn't find us Theodore Nott. You couldn't find us my bloodtraitor sister...and, well, let's just say our Dark Lord decided to look into those nifty little coins you kept finding himself. I happened to find a rather large stash of them in your room the other week."

Damnit. He should have known that he was being to brash with that one. His mind flicked through all the excuses he could possibly have only to come up blank. Bellatrix gave a dangerous growl and reared back. Fuck it.

He apparated again.

Once. Twice. Three times.

The fourth time he splinched himself, utterly exhausted as he fell onto the ground of some park he had gone to when he was nine. His magic whined in protest - exhausted as he tried to get up. Bellatrix's laugh seemed to echo around him. She had managed to tail him the first three times, but maybe... maybe now...

"Nice try."

You know, there was a pureblood myth out there that the founders of Hogwarts could sometimes serve a patron guardians in times of need. For example, a Ravenclaw might see Rowena Ravenclaw when faced with a particularly difficult task or a Hufflepuff might see Helga Hufflepuff when a gust of wind tried to blow them over. Things of that nature.

Godric Gryffindor did not partake in that tradition, apparently, because Draco remained screwed as his aunt sent a stinging jinx at him before giving a sharp kick to the ribs.

No regrets. Ted was going to meet his grandson. It was worth it. He only hoped his parents would forgive him.

"You... lying... little... _bloodtraitor!"_ Bellatrix hissed and kicked him again. Draco gave a sharp intake, "Just you wait," she laughed, "Oh, I'll save you for my master. I will, darling, but I'll make sure you're _begging_ for him." She told venomously and stomped on his hand. Draco choked on the pain. The world... the world was... he was so tired... so.... so... tired...

When he opened his eyes he was back in the manor again with a trembling hand gripping at his robes.

"He's just a boy, please. Please, it was a mistake. It won't happen again," his mother's voice said, shaking, "Bella. Bella, he could have been under the imperius curse for all we know. You have to give him a chance. Please - _please-"_

"Shh," Draco said as he winced. His body protested at any sort of movement, but he forced himself up on his elbows anyways, "Mother, it's... it's fine..." He said and looked around. He touched his robes. Surprisingly, everything was still there. His wand, his watch, his knife, the muting potion he made, and some ingredients he picked up at the apothecary. Perhaps they wanted to give him a fighting chance. He glanced up, noticing his father was also there with his wand out and eyes nervously flicking around the room.

"The Dark Lord is coming, Narcissa," Bellatrix told her coldly, "If you want a chance to live I would step aside."

"Not Draco!" His mother said and his skin went cold at having ever been the one to put such desperation in her voice, "Please... have mercy... have mercy," She told them, looking around wildly at where all the other Death Eaters stood, "Not my son! _Not Draco!_ Please — I'll do anything!" She said as more gathered around. Draco looked around the room. He had an idea. Swallowing, he grabbed his mother's arm, hoping and praying that mothers had that extra sense she always claimed they did. Panicked eyes met his own and he squeezed before slipping something into her hand. It didn't ensure anyone's survival, but... Hell, he wouldn't go down without a fight at least.

"Get up off the ground, Cissy," Bellatrix snapped, "This quibbling and pathetic. Act your station!" She shouted and Narcissa flinched. Then, keeping her eyes locked on Draco, she got up.

"Narcissa-" His father began, looking back at her with alarm. He was silenced by several wands being pointed at him.

"You're... you're right..." Narcissa whispered, voice catching as she walked away. "I... I just..."

"He's your son, Narcissa. We know." Rowle said, sounding exhausted, "But he's a traitor. You lived without him for years. You can do it again."

"Your life is already in danger as it is. Don't give the Dark Lord more reason to punish you." Jugson added. His mother nodded absently, not meeting anyone's eyes as she wrung her hands together, body shivering slightly.

"I... I'm going to make some tea..." She murmured and absently walked from the room. A few people frowned at her - obviously concerned - but nobody stopped her. Donovan sighed.

"Look at you. Breaking your poor mother's heart," he said as Dolohav chuckled lowly behind him, "Honestly, I expected so much better from you." He added on. Draco looked back at them, but didn't respond. Wouldn't. He simply waited calmly as the room seemed to grow smaller and smaller. His mother came back at some point, handing out cups of tea between teary-eyes sniffles and pointed looks at everywhere but Draco.

"Oh, uh, thanks, Cissa." Rowle told her. Nobody looked too thrilled by the offering, but it looked as though they were trying to placate her by taking small sips. Draco internally shook his head. He never knew his mother was so beloved among this group. His father's jaw clenched, looking at his wife with obvious betrayal before pushing one of the wands pointed at him to the side.

"He's a child. Children make mistakes." He said with more life than Draco had heard in him in months.

"Look at how his parenting style has changed," someone muttered, "Making excuses now, are we?"

"I've summoned the Dark Lord," Bellatrix said, putting aside her untouched cup to the side. "He'll deal with you soon enough." She said, eyes narrowed at him and glittering with hatred. Draco didn't respond. His skin was prickling. It was strange to sit there and wait for your death to walk through the front door. He hadn't really thought much on death if he was honest. He always stood at its precipice, but never really thought to look down into its depths and consider how close he really was to falling in.

There was an uncomfortable twist in his stomach as a rush of adrenaline rose inside of him with nowhere to direct it.

From somewhere outside, he heard a creak.

There was the faint smell of rust and rotting meat that almost made Draco choke on the air before the room went deadly silent. A few Death Eaters moved to the side quickly, bowing their heads and muttering pleasantries. Draco looked up to meet red eyes.

"Hello, Draco."

He smiled.

"Hello, master," He greeted and with whatever remaining energy he had left, forced himself to get up. A few people moved forward, but Voldemort raised his hand to stop them. There were a few seconds of silence as Draco managed to struggle up while everyone watched warily. "You seem upset." Draco added lightly. Voldemort hummed.

"Do I?" He asked and took a step closer, "I am surprised in you, Draco. I would have thought you would have some sort of clever plan to get me to spare your life," he mused, "No more games?"

Draco felt a cold sense of dread at how... composed he was. That wasn't a good sign. He wished Severus was here. He would know what to do.

"I know when I've been beaten," Draco told him and then shrugged, "Besides, I got one final laugh."

"Oh? The muggleborn? We'll find him again soon enough," Voldemort said and Draco shook his head. It was at that moment that Rowle started coughing. Draco glanced over at him before turning to back to Voldemort. Donovan joined him seconds later, clutching as his throat as he fell against the wall. Bellatrix stiffened for a moment before turning to look at where Narcissa stood calmly, watching with an eerily blank look.

"What," Voldemort said slowly as he turned to look at where several of his Death Eaters were now falling to the ground, "Is this?" He asked. Bellatrix fell next to Rodolphus, whispering spells over him as he began to convulse. Draco grimaced. She could maybe save a few of them, but certainly not all. From his place behind Voldemort, Pettigrew made a squealing sound in alarm before also kneeling down to help. Draco didn't really think he would get very far.

"Belladonna," Draco answered him with a shrug, "My lord." He added. Voldemort stared back for a couple seconds before a slow smile began to spread over his face. Warning bells went off in the back of Draco's head, but the fear seemed to keep him still as the smile turned into a low laughter.

"Oh, what an event you're making this out to be," he said, flicking his wand so that Rabastan shuddered still, "Betraying me. Trying to take out my Death Eaters." He said and turned back towards him. From the corner of his eyes, Draco could see his father move towards him, but someone whispered a spell that made him go still. "I'll find a way to make us even, Draco. Don't worry." Voldemort whispered.

"Make him _pay,_ master!" Bellatrix gritted out from where she was still trying to shove antidotes down her husbands throat. Draco swallowed and grabbed the watch around his neck. Warmth trickled through him, calming him down and giving him a chance to recompose himself. Taking a long breath, he closed his eyes and sent something back. A goodbye, maybe. His gratitude for the past seven years. How much he would miss them. Everything he could.

"Go ahead," Draco managed to challenge, "Make me pay."

A weak chuckle drifted over the remaining Death Eaters who had been shifting uncertainly around the room. Some had gone towards his mother while others were trying to keep his father from fighting back. Draco wouldn't let himself look at them. Not now.

“Come now, little lion. Stand tall,” Voldemort purred, “Tell me, is our Gryffindor afraid?” He asked. Draco swallowed back the tingling fear to look him straight in the eyes. “No, of course not.” He scoffed.

“Being a Gryffindor doesn’t mean I’m not scared,” Draco answered, proud that his voice stayed even and strong, “It just means I can look you in the eyes when I tell you to go fuck yourself,” he said and jutted out his chin. 

Voldemort stared, face completely blank. Then he raised his wand. 

Somewhere - hundreds of miles away - Harry Potter jolted up with a gasp.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :D


	17. Year Seven (In Which Harry Takes Over and Visits Potential Aunt-In-Laws)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lmao sorry about that end of that last chapter. This one is extra long tho!

“Something is wrong.” 

Harry felt as though he had said it a thousand times. Of course, literally everything was wrong at the moment. Just not like this. Not like this, not like this, not like this, _not like this_ -

He had done well with occlumency over the years. Still, he wasn’t always able to block out everything. Sometimes it felt as though the dreams came down… deep down… as if they came from inside of him rather than some sort of vague connection. He didn’t understand it. 

None of that mattered now though. 

“It might be the same as it was with Sirius,” Hermione said reasonably, kneeling in front of him, “He might be tricking you-”

“It wasn’t the same,” Harry said, shaking his head, “It wasn’t and we need to find him.” He said and swallowed, “Okay? I… I felt him. He was scared. He was alone with him and I _felt_ his pain-”

“Draco’s?” Hermione said and shook her head, “Harry, if you felt Draco’s pain then it is definitely Voldemort making stuff up. You and Draco don’t have a connection-”

“Not in the same way Voldemort and I do,” Harry cut her off, “But I always know when he’s in trouble. Where’s the watch? Maybe he put something in there.” He said, standing up to look around. Hermione closed her eyes.

“Ron took it.” She said quietly and Harry clenched his hands before turning to hit a tree beside him. Damnit. _Damnit._ The mere mention of Ron sent anger bubbling under his skin. 

_“No, you don’t know how this feels! Your parents are dead!”_

Bullshit. He knew. He fucking knew. He knew through Sirius. Through Remus. Through Draco. 

God, he knew through Draco. 

Maybe it had been the right thing to do… letting them go their separate ways. He still regretted it though. Right thing or not, he couldn’t stand not knowing. Not seeing him, not knowing, not knowing, not knowing- 

When Harry found him again, he was never going anywhere without him again. This was torture. Pain he wasn’t quite sure how he could feel so fully and utterly. Groaning, he leaned back on the ground, cursing Ron. He couldn't have left behind that _stupid_ watch? He glowered at the top of the trees, trying to think. Maybe... maybe he could... figure out a different way to contact him?

"Here," he said, turning back to Hermione, "I can take watch." He said, holding out his hand. Hermione looked him over. She seemed torn between agreeing and arguing. He could see the fatigue hinting at her features. They had been traveling for so long and the damn locket hadn't been helping. "I'm okay. You sleep and I'll figure out something." He said, trying to sound calmer than he felt. Hermione didn't look convinced, but warily dropped the locket in his hand before bringing out her wand. Harry took both, inwardly cursing Nagini's attack for the destruction of his own.

He knew Hermione's spell had saved his life, but... he felt utterly defenseless without his wand. As it was, one wand between them felt precarious. Given that Harry wasn't comfortable with Hermione's it proved to be a difficult task.

"I only need an hour or so," Hermione promised. Harry gave a small smile as she practically fell through the tent. He would give her a couple hours. She more than deserved it after Godric's Hallow. He replayed it all in his head over and over again. His parents' graves. The busted house. It was easy to let his mind wander as he stared at the light sprinkling of snow surrounding them in the woods. It was oddly peaceful for a war. His mind drifted back to Draco.

A few more hours passed. Harry didn't bother to go into the tent though. He stayed outside - rising a hand up to outline a familiar cluster of stars. After a moment, he swallowed back his regret, collapsing on the ground beneath him. What was he supposed to do? Harry should have thought of a way to locate Draco for situations like this. Maybe he should have come up with their own ways to keep in contact outside Ron's watch. Groaning, he gripped his hair in frustration.

Here he was with a broken wand, Ron gone, a horcrux he couldn't destroy, and Draco... God he didn't even know where to begin with Draco.

"This seems to be going well."

Harry shot up. A figure was in the trees, shrouded by shadows and foliage of the plants around them. Harry yanked out Hermione's wand and pointed it.

"Whose book did I have last year?" He called and there was a low scoff before the figure stepped out a bit closer to the tent.

"Mine," Snape said and pursed his lips as he looked pityingly around their campsite, "I'm not sure horcrux hunting agrees with you," He added wryly. Harry lowered his wand in relief.

"I won't be complaining when it's over," he said. Severus' lips thinned at that, but he said nothing, "Why are you here? Is it Draco?" He asked, voice rising. "I had a dream - I _know_ I shouldn't have with my occlumency shields, but a few still get by me. He was in trouble. Do you know if that's true?" He asked. Severus shook his head.

"I'm stationed at the school. Draco writes and visits occasionally, but we've kept our interactions limited to avoid suspicion." He said. Harry felt a swell of frustration, "I can look into it, but you shouldn't get sidetracked." He warned and lifted up his cloak to reveal a flash of silver, "I'm assuming you may need this?" He asked and Harry's mouth parted. Gryffindor's sword.

"How-? I don't even care. Thank you," Harry breathed out, pocketing Hermione's wand to rush forward and take it from him. Severus held it back.

"There is a problem," he admitted. Harry frowned. When wasn't there a problem? "Dumbledore’s portrait... he said he is worried the sword may not work unless an act of valor calls for it. Originally, he asked me to put it at the bottom of a frozen lake for you to grab." He admitted. Harry tilted his head, silently asking the question of why he didn't continue with that plan, "Draco would never forgive me if I did that to you." He added dryly. Harry snorted. Fair enough.

"Is living like this not an act of valor?" He asked. Snape handed over the sword to him with a grimace to give his thoughts on the matter. Harry took off the locket and threw it on the ground, raising the tip of the sword to plunge down into the locket. Nothing happened. "Shit." He muttered and then paused when Snape brought out a bag and dumped it on the ground. Harry frowned and knelt down, looking inside to find...basilisk fangs? He looked up in wonder.

"That was the back-up plan," Snape shrugged, "I thought the sword might be useless so I enlisted some help to get inside the Chamber of Secrets," he explained and from his collar popped up a familiar face.

"Harriet." He said and then frowned, "Why isn't she with Draco?" He asked and then turned to Harriet, " _Why aren't you with Draco?"_ He added to her in parseltongue. Harriet's eyes went from beady black to red with annoyance as she reared her head back.

 _"Not even a hello?"_ She asked, tongue flicking out. Harry groaned. Why was she always so annoying? _"Draco asked me here in case the Chamber needed to be open. He didn't trust Dumbledore to get you the sword without some obnoxious, unnecessary plan,"_ she informed him between low hisses, _"I did not wish to leave his side either, human."_

Harry glared. Harriet glared right back. Well, glared in whatever way a snake could glare. Her facial expressions weren't particularly vast, but Harry could feel her irritation at him rolling off of her all the same.

"Thank you... so much." Harry said to Snape who merely nodded. Harriet raised her head higher, turning a bright shade of red.

_"You should be thanking me."_

_"No,"_ Harry answered her, _"You're annoying and if you have no way to see if Draco's okay then you're useless to me."_

 _"If you can't tell me if Draco's okay then perhaps you are useless to me,"_ Harriet shot back. Right. He should have picked out literally any other snake to give to Draco in their third year. Glowering, he stood up, picking up a fang and jamming it into the locket. A loud shrieked followed - echoing loudly throughout the forest so that animals scattered from trees and Hermione came sprinting out of the tent. Harry brought the fang down again and a small whimper followed before the metal turned a dull shade of black, cracking in half completely.

Harry nodded.

"It worked," he announced and moved over as Hermione made her way over. She looked at the locket then to the bag of fangs. She stood frozen for a second before slowly looking at Snape. He stared back at her with an unreadable expression. Harry was about to ask if she was okay when she launched herself at the other man. Snape practically scrambled to get away - looking deeply uncomfortable with the fact he had just been thrown into a hug. Luckily for him, it didn't last long since Hermione let go seconds later to hug Harry next.

 _"Hermione!"_ Harriet called brightly. Harry made a face before lightly tugging on Hermione's arm to gesture towards the snake.

"Oh, _Harriet,"_ Hermione cried in greeting and reached out. Harriet slid over to her wrist, tongue flicking out a few times in welcome. Harry rolled his eyes. He never understood why she liked Hermione so much. "I've missed you. Is Draco here?" She asked, looking around. Harry shook his head.

"He left her with Snape so he had access to the basilisk's skeleton," he explained. Hermione's mouth parted slightly with realization before gently returning Harriet back to Snape with a solemn nod.

"If you somehow run out of these I'll try to bring more," Snape said, letting Harriet slide back up his sleeve. Harriet paused to give Harry one last scathing look before disappearing once more, "Perhaps try to get the sword to work as well if you're running low." He added. Harry nodded. Honestly, there were a good ten fangs in there. Considering there were only three more horcruxes left there should be more than enough, but Harry learned the hard way not to count on... well. Literally anything.

"Thank you, professor." He said and - for once - actually meant it. Snape only gave a curt nod before raising his hood. If Harry thought he would have some parting words for them then he was wrong. Within seconds he had disappeared back into the shadows. Harry clung to the bag of fangs as Hermione opened her purse so that Harry could shove them in there.

The snapping of a twig stilled them both.

"Where the bloody Hell did you get those?"

_Ron._

"You came back," he said, making out the outline of his friend through the trees. Ron was in the same clothes he had left in - hair matted and dark shadows under his eyes, but alive and _here_. Hermione tensed for a moment. "Snape gave us basilisk fangs." He added and Ron gave an approving nod though there was something in his expression that wasn't as pleased as Harry thought he might be. He seemed...distracted. "Ron?"

"I need to talk to you both," Ron said, but his words feel on partially deaf ears as Hermione dropped her bag. A resounding thud followed.

"You-" she began, jutting out her chin as her eyes filled with rage. Harry took a step away from her. Nope. He loved Ron, but maybe not enough to stand in between him and a furious Hermione. He glanced over, fully expecting Ron to go sprinting off in the other direction, but he was already shaking his head. Before Hermione could continue he raised his hand so a golden watch swung on a chain.

"I know you're angry. You should be, but we have a bigger problem," he said. Harry's blood went cold, "Draco sent me something right after I left. I tried to get to you both as soon as I could, but you had already gone. I just wanted to check on him and... we need to find him. Fast." He said. Harry felt his breath leave him for a moment.

"Why? What did you feel?" He asked and Ron's lips pursed.

"It... felt like he was saying... he was scared," Ron decided, cutting off what he originally was trying to say, "We have to find him. I sent him stuff back, but he hasn't responded and it's been days. Someone might have taken the watch from him or something." He explained, voice catching slightly. Harry turned to Hermione. He had been right. She looked back at him with a similar sense of horror. Without waiting for a response, Hermione nodded fiercely.

"Then we find him." She said, taking a long breath, "Give me the watch. If I can find pieces of his magic we might be able to pick up something." She said and Ron barely held it out before she snatched it away. Harry remained frozen - unsure what to do as Hermione retreated to the tent and left them both out in the cold. Waiting. Just waiting.

And wait they did.

Despite their best efforts there was no trace of Draco Malfoy that they could fine. No mention of him on Potterwatch, no traces of his magic, no word in the Daily Prophet, no responses to his watch - nothing. Harry had used his two-way mirror to ask Sirius if he had seen or heard from him, but there was nothing. _Nothing_. Harry hated it. He couldn't sleep. He couldn't eat. He tried to reconnect with Voldemort a few times - desperately looking to find something... anything at all.

By the third day he thought he might explode.

"We could go to Hogwarts," he said, "If he isn't there then we can find people to help look for them." He said, fighting to sound calm. Hermione held up a finger, tapping her lips as she flipped through what looked to be a map. Her fingers drifted over the page before pausing.

"Andromeda," she finally said, "We should also find Andromeda. Do you know where her safe house is?" She asked. Harry shook his head. He actually had never thought to ask about Andromeda's safe house though he would agree that she was their best bet for finding Draco quickly. "Okay, I'll try to go off what I know," Hermione murmured. Ron frowned.

"What does that mean?"

Hermione didn't answer him. Not that anyone expected her to considering her anger was definitely still soaring high for Ron's abandonment. He seemed smart enough not to argue with her when she held out her arm.

Harry had no such qualms.

"Hermione, we need to find Draco quickly. If you don't actually know where Andromeda is-"

"I care about him too," Hermione snapped, stuffing all of their things in her beaded bag, "I'm not taking this lightly. I will get us to her," she said firmly and Harry pursed his lips. He trusted Hermione... he would have to go with this. "Remember what Ron was saying earlier," Hermione told them both sternly (well... just Harry) "Do not use You-Know-Who's name. It would be bad enough if we got caught from the taboo, but if we endanger Andromeda..."

"You-Know-Who would be the least of our worries," Ron nodded. Harry couldn't help but agree with that assessment. An angry Draco wasn't the most fun. Hermione hummed at that before closing her eyes and with a snap they were off again. This time the apparating time seemed slightly longer than usual as they squeezed through that endless black tube of nothingness before a sharp pop followed. Harry collapsed on the ground with a gasp. Hermione gave a hysterical laugh beside him.

"Oh my God. I can't believe we made it!" She said, putting her arms in the air in victory, "I was only going off of the photo Draco showed me... I thought for sure we would at least get - oh," she said when she said up and saw Ron sitting calmly with his hand missing. "I have dittany." She said and then glanced over, "Damnit. I'll get you next, Harry." She said. It was then that Harry looked down in surprise to see a finger was missing from his left hand. It was then that pain began to register.

"Well," he said with a frown at the blood dripping down, "I suppose I can carry on with nine."

"I'm sorry!" Hermione said as she quickly set to work reattaching Ron's hand, "Draco told me about this place and showed me a picture in case of an emergency, but he never had a chance to take me. It makes it a bit tricky with the apparation bit," she said though she seemed a bit off. Harry frowned as he watched her pause to regain her breath a few times before forcing herself to keep working. Ron watched her with an air of concern - now apparently all too familiar with the splinching process given his numerous splinches so far to focus on that. He was quiet as Harry started to digest where they were.

It was... well, Harry had no idea where they were. An alley of some sort. Draco could see people walking by at the end of it and buildings all shoved together in a variety of colors. What caught his attention the most, however, was that where he normally might see a road was instead a river with walkways on either side. Boats floated by with flocks of people clicking photos and gaping in awe around them.

"...where are we?" He asked as Hermione turned her attention to Harry's finger now that Ron's hand was wrapped.

"Amsterdam," Hermione answered before rubbing her eyes blearily. Harry's brows raised. That was _far_. He hadn't know Hermione was powerful enough to leave Britain. Sometimes it was easy to forget that while she relied heavily on intelligence... Hermione did have quite a bit of raw strength. No wonder she looked out of it. He turned to Ron who also seemed shocked at the announcement. Harry could vaguely see him mouthing 'how?' at her back as she worked.

"Do you know how to get to Andromeda from here?" He asked and Hermione grimaced.

"Yes," she grumbled and winced when she stood up. Ron raced over to keep her from falling to the side, "I'm fine, I'm fine. Andromeda." She said, blinking a few times. "Water. There." She said, pointing to the canal outside the alleyway. Harry paused.

"We... go into the water?" He asked. Hermione nodded. Oh, brilliant. Why not? It looked warm and toasty. Grimacing, he went to Hermione's other side to help Ron keep her moving. "Okay, so we jump in and then what?"

"Draco said... there was something we tap with out wands? Like to get into Diagon Alley." She yawned. Ron gave a panicked look over her head. Harry was in a similar place. Were these muggles not supposed to notice them hopping in the water to tap random bricks with sticks? Hermione was getting more tired by the minute too.

Before the panic could fully set in there was a chuckle.

"You three look lost," a voice said and Harry turned to see a girl watching them. She looked oddly... well placed. Like she belonged in the city as she sat on a stone ledge with a purple dress spreading around her, "Tell me," she continued casually, "What's your favorite color?" She asked. Ron stared at the girl, mouth dropping open. Harry narrowed his eyes.

"Red?" He began cautiously. The girl's lips tugged upwards.

"Not maroon?"

"You know Draco." Part of Harry was astounded that he had the foresight to tell this random girl such an intricate detail about their relationship that happened a year ago. How did he know they would need to come her? How did he know they wouldn't know what do? Well, actually...

The girl hopped up, tossing dark hair over her shoulder as she gestured them to follow. Ron hesitated before simply picking up a nearly unconscious Hermione bridal style and following her towards where a small set of stairs led under one of the stone bridges. She waited until they joined her to speak again.

"I hope you don't mind getting wet." She told them, gesturing to the flowing water beside them. It swirled as it seemed to morph between green and blue with droplets of water splashing up every so often. The girl gave them one last smile before taking a deep breath and jumping in.

"Oh, come _on_ ," Ron muttered and held Hermione a bit closer, "Can you make sure it opens for us?" He asked Harry. Giving a grimace, he nodded and took a deep breath before also jumping in. The water was every bit as cold as he feared. He had a half a mind to go back up to the surface when he saw a flash of purple guiding him down. He swam down slightly, glancing up see Ron had also jumped in with a bubblehead charm around Hermione. He grabbed his ankle to start pulling him down with them. Please, please, _please_ be close.

The girl was waiting for them patiently a bit further down. Harry felt his lungs start to burn as she brought out her wand and tapped a glimmering black jewel mounting on one of the bricks. Immediately there was a sharp crunching sound and the water began to pull. Before Harry could properly react the water sucked them in with a loud slurping noise. He hit the ground hard, coughing a bit as a sharp sizzling sound followed along with the feeling of immediately beginning to dry. He turned to see the wall behind them had solidified into bricks once more.

"DAPHNE! IT'S YOUR TURN TO TAKE WATCH!"

Harry coughed up some water. Hermione was awake again - looking around bewildered as the water began to evaporate from around them. They were in what could have been a very surreal living room. It was filled with dark wood floors that led into a kitchen with couches and bookshelves in between. He looked up to see the girl drying herself off with a flick of her wand.

"Who the Hell did you bring in here?" A new voice called and Harry looked up to see Daphne Greengrass standing in front of them. "...what the Hell, Astoria? Is that Harry Potter?" She asked and took a long breath, "ANDROMEDA!" She called and walked over to help Hermione up, "YOU HAVE A MUDBLOOD, A BLOODTRAITOR, AND THE CHOSEN ONE HERE TO SEE YOU!" She shouted.

"Daphne," Astoria frowned and - _oh_ , Harry remembered Draco mentioning her. He hadn't known he had snuck out both the Greengrass sisters, "Don't use that word here." She said, shaking her head.

"Which one?" Daphne asked flatly and then looked them over, "How do you know it's really them?"

"Andromeda will kill them if it isn't," Astoria said and then walked over to where a smaller group of kids were all gathered in a circle with books in their laps. They peered over them curiously right as a door at the end end of the room opened.

"You," Andromeda greeted with her wand out and a kitchen knife in her other hand, "Tell me what your boggart was in Remus' class. Now." She said and Ron jumped.

"Um, spiders-"

"And you," She added to Harry, "What did your friends get you for Christmas last year?"

"A pensieve. You made Draco a scrapbook." He added with a shrug. Andromeda slowly lowered her weapons. It had been awhile since he'd seen her. She looked pretty good for being in the middle of a war. Maybe it had something to do with being a grandmother. Speaking of which-

"Mom? Do I need to kick someone's ass?" A voice asked and Tonks herself appeared with a rather large belly and a note of exhaustion in her voice, "Oh. Hey." She said and then held up a hand to catch her breath, "Give me a second. Those were a lot of stairs."

"Nymphadora, you shouldn't be fighting anyone like this." Andromeda told her flatly. Tonks snorted.

"Nah, I got to teach my little one to come out swinging," she said and patted her stomach, "In this family, we don't bitch even if we're pregnant."

Andromeda closed her eyes and counted backwards from ten.

"I'm getting gray hair because of you," she said and then snapped her fingers at the kids who were still staring, "Nothing to see here. Finish your work. Just because you aren't in school doesn't mean you can't learn. Hogwarts may be lacking in their educational stability, but Andromeda's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is not." She said and helped Tonks to the couch before moving towards them. "Sorry for the lack of welcome. You can never be too careful," she said and glanced over at Hermione who was about to pass out again. "Let me see." She said and then put her hand on Hermione's cheek as she murmured a few spells, "Her magic is overextended. Put her there," she said with a nod towards a couch, "Astoria, can you get me Pepper-Up potion?" She asked.

"Why doesn't Astoria have to study?" A boy mumbled. Andromeda rolled her eyes. Harry had never noticed how many similar mannerisms she had to her nephew until this moment. It was a little startling.

"What is the summoning charm, Derek?" She asked. The boy opened his mouth then paused. "Astoria, what is the summoning charm?"

"Accio!"

"Any other questions?" She asked and Derek pouted before going back to his book. Andromeda shook her head, "What are you three doing here? I thought you were hunting horcruxes," she said, tapping her wand to their clothes so that they cleaned themselves with a zip.

"We were, but then Draco stopped responding," Harry said and Andromeda froze, "We wanted to know if you had seen him." He asked. Andromeda pursed her lips as she lowered her wand before slowly shaking her head. Shit. Harry shot Ron a panicked look, "When was the last time you heard from him?"

"Two weeks ago?" she said, running her hand through her hair, "He spoke to Ted last, I think. He had gotten caught by some snatchers and Draco managed to get him out. Ted got to Hogwarts okay though. He said Draco had a plan on how to smooth things over. I... I mean, I hadn't thought to worry because Draco wouldn't have risked anything if didn't know he would be okay. His plans have worked well so far." She said but there was a rising note of panic. Ron grimaced.

"Two weeks ago was when he stopped using the watch," he said quietly. Andromeda went white. Harry watched as she went completely still before sitting down in an armchair, staring blankly at the ground before taking two long breaths.

"Everyone pack your things," she finally called and the group of kids paused, "We're leaving in an hour."

Nobody needed to be told twice. Within seconds everyone had dropped their books and went scrambling towards various doors that Harry hadn't noticed before. Andromeda stayed sitting until Tonks came over and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"What's going on?" She asked, frowning as she glanced at the Ron and Harry questioningly.

"Draco's missing," Andromeda said and then lifted her gaze to meet Harry's, "If he's compromised I need to move them. I... last year, I made a few spare places to hide without Draco knowing. I knew if they caught him..." She trailed off.

"So you think he's be caught?"

"I don't know," Andromeda told him, "I really don't. Ever since last year he had a million plans in place. Some I knew about and others I didn't. He might have escaped and just be hiding somewhere, but I can't risk anything. Not with..." She swallowed and looked at where Tonks had also gotten quiet. The rest of her words went unsaid. Andromeda simply buried her face in her hands. From the couch, Hermione shifted slightly in her sleep.

"Where's Remus?" Ron asked and Harry perked up. Maybe Remus knew something. He could help, right? He must know something-

"With Sirius. He'll be back before the baby comes." Tonks told him, rubbing her stomach thoughtfully, "Have you tried Lucius and Narcissa?" she asked. Harry gave a wry laugh. Yeah, because they were on speaking terms with the Malfoys that Harry not-so-secretly blamed for everything bad that had ever happened to Draco, "Mom?"

"I don't know about Lucius," Andromeda said slowly, "Narcissa though... she may be on You-Know-Who's side, but she would help you if it meant Draco was safe." She answered and stood up, lightly tugging at her hair as she paced, "The manor is your best bet."

"The manor?" Ron repeated.

"Malfoy Manor," Andromeda nodded, "It's where the Dark Lord made his headquarters outside of the ministry. Narcissa and Lucius are running it with Bellatrix. Even if Draco isn't there you'll find Narcissa." She said and then gave a long sigh. "I don't know how you would get in there though. Their security is going to be ridiculous." She told him. Tonks tilted her head.

"Unless you're brought there on purpose."

They all turned to her.

"On purpose?" Harry repeated and she nodded, rubbing her stomach a bit as she thought.

"Snatchers," she said and Ron gave a sharp intake, "They would bring you either to the manor or the ministry," she mused, brows furrowing, "I think the only way to ensure you would be brought the manor would be if you forego the disguise though. According to Kingsley there's starting to be a rivalry between certain ministry workers and Death Eaters. Ministry workers are trying to take credit for the other's work. Assuming a Death Eater found you then they would want to ensure Harry Potter's capture was credited to them."

"It's extremely dangerous," Andromeda pointed out, "If they realized they had Harry-"

"I'll do it."

The group turned to him. Harry wasn't sure why any of them looked surprised. This was the fastest way to get to Draco, right? Of course, he was going to take it. Ron didn't look nearly as thrilled by the prospect, but he wasn't arguing.

"They'll call the Dark Lord immediately," Andromeda informed him, "It's too risky. You'll die before you could even find Draco." She said and Harry pursed his lips. From behind her, one of the doors open to reveal a few Slytherins popping out to place their bags on the floor with expectant looks at Andromeda.

That didn't matter now.

"We need to move," Andromeda said and stood up, "I wish I could be of more help. The best I can do is tell you to find a way into Malfoy Manor." She said standing up, "You could also go and find Ted at Hogwarts. He can help you-"

"Why did he leave this place in the first place?"

"Blaise and Pansy," Andromeda said, crossing her arms over her chest, "They just... left one day. Ted went after them." She explained and then looked down. "When you find Draco," she said with a hint of determination in her voice, "Tell him I'm sorry." She said and shook her head, "I shouldn't have-"

"Don't," Harry interrupted her gently, "It's... It wasn't your fault. This is one of the risks he took. We'll find him." He promised and Andromeda smiled weakly, "Do you know of a way we can get back to England?" He asked and Astoria popped back up by Tonks’ shoulder.

"Wiltshire," she said and they all turned to her, "You want to go to Wiltshire. That's where Malfoy Manor is." She explained with a small shrug and then glanced at where Hermione was still asleep, "I could apparate one of you there," she said and Harry blinked. She looked younger than them. How on Earth did she know how to apparate at all? "I think I could get there and back okay... I just don't know if I could take more than one." She frowned, "Daphne?"

"Why are you dragging me into this?" Daphne grumbled, but when Andromeda looked at her, sighed, "Sure, but I'm pretty sure I can only do one person too. I don't know how Granger dragged you both along."

"Well, so can I," Andromeda said, standing up, "Or, how about this - Nymphadora can take everyone here to the next safe house and after we drop these three off we'll travel to join you together." She said with a nod towards Astoria and Daphne. Both girls nodded while Tonks pursed her lips - a little dismayed at having been left out of the action. "Very good." She decided and walked over to gently shake Hermione up. Tonks leaned forward.

"Stay safe out there, you guys," she said gently and then turned to where more Slytherins were watching uncertainly, "Let's go! Follow me!" She called and waddled off with the group following her. Astoria skipped over to Harry with a bright smile.

"Ready?" She asked. Harry looked at her warily.

"...sure," he said as she held out her arm, "Why are you helping us again?" He asked. Astoria raised a brow. It should have been obvious given that she would probably die if they lost this war, but he asked anyways as he grabbed her arm.

"You're helping Draco, right?" She asked. Harry nodded. "Then that's why," she said and Harry didn't have a chance to respond as he was jerked away. A few seconds later he hit grass with a thud. Astoria stumbled, looking a little pale as she leaned against a tree. He got up to help her, but she raised a hand before giving him a week thumbs up. "I'm... good..." she managed. A pop followed. Daphne and Ron appeared. Then Andromeda with a much more alert and awake Hermione.

"Here, take another," Andromeda said, giving her a blue bottle. Hermione smiled graciously and accepted it as Andromeda grabbed Daphne and Astoria with one last regretful look at them. "Perhaps, I could join you..." She said, looking around the forest. Harry could vaguely make out buildings through the trees. Surely the whole thing wasn't the manor, right? Ron shook his head.

"Thank you, but you have others to look after. We have it under control," he promised and Andromeda smiled tightly, "We'll let you know as soon as we find Draco." He said. Andromeda walked over to hug them each tightly with murmured thank yous. With one last wary look around them she grabbed Astoria and Daphne before another pop sounded and they were gone. Harry looked away. He needed to get inside. Every second they waited was another Draco could be in trouble.

But how?

He turned to Hermione and Ron thoughtfully. If they wouldn't be put in danger he would totally be fine to face the snatchers himself. He just wasn't sure how to get them away...

"We should set-up camp a little farther away so we can plan," Harry suggested and Hermione nodded, eyes narrowed at the outline beyond the trees with spires reaching towards the sky.

"Good idea," she told him and looked around, "How far do you think?" She asked, looking around them. Ron, however, was staring at Harry with slightly narrowed eyes. Harry tried to look as innocent as he could back at him.

"A decent amount," he said, "So we can't be tracked-"

"Shove off," Ron interrupted him, "You're going to try to get snatched the second we turn out backs, aren't you?" He asked. Harry opened his mouth, but Ron was already shaking his head, "I know you want to find Draco, but we're no helped to him if we're dead, Harry." He said sternly. Harry bit his tongue and looked away. "We can figure out a plan-"

"He's been gone for _two weeks!_ Maybe even more!" Harry shot back, voice rising, "Do you know how much could have happened to him in that time?"

"We're worried too!"

"It's not the same," Harry muttered and glanced over his shoulder. They were _right there_. For all he knew, Draco could only been a few minutes away. "Just let me handle this. I'll be fine."

"You don't think we want to go with you?"

"Well, fine. Say his name and we'll all go together!"

"You know, that isn't the best option!"

"What is then? How long will it take us to figure out a way inside without being seen or caught. How are we going to even figure out if Draco is in there? Or his parents?" He asked, throwing up his hands. "We're going to have to take a risk either way. Just let me go alone and then-"

"You're not going in alone, Harry. That isn't a choice."

"Well, we're running a little low on choices, Hermione," Harry said, trying his best to stay calm, "But for all we know Draco is already, dying, or being tortured by Death Eaters or Voldemort himself. So we need to figure-" He began and froze when Ron made a choking noise. Shit. "Go," Harry said, eyes widening, "Apparate or-"

"NOBODY MOVE!"

Well... it looked like they were getting a personal escort into the manor after all.

* * *

Harry was pretty sure the stinging charm was the only thing keeping them alive at the moment. He was grateful for it. Not just because it masked his identity, but also he could hide his emotions as they were led into Malfoy Manor. Draco had spoken about his childhood home before - Harry had even occasionally seen remnants of it. Despite Draco's attempts to forget his life before them, hints of it always popped up one way or another whether it be through the Room of Requirement or his ridiculously expensive taste over very trivial things. Now, it felt like the last puzzle piece was fit into place as he stepped inside.

It was... well, kind of ugly. To him.

Lavish? Yes, absolutely. There were marble floors and glittering jewels with chandeliers and velvet chairs with silk curtains. However, it felt very empty and cold. It might have beat a cupboard under the stairs, but Harry didn't think he would have liked to have grown up here either. It seemed... lonely.

As if Harry was one to talk about a lonely childhood.

"Don't say a word," Hermione breathed to him. Harry grimaced. There were a thousand things he wanted to say. He wanted to tell the snatchers that they somehow smelled worse than them. That those Death Eater masks looked pathetic. That Bellatrix had major muggle Michael Myers vibes. He didn't though... even if all of it was true. 

"Welcome, welcome!" Bellatrix greeted, sashaying into the foyer like she owned the place. Harry had very (very) little respect for Narcissa and Lucius, but he had at least hoped they would be the ones running the show instead of the demented aunt. Hermione made a choking noise, leaning away from her as Bellatrix bounded a bit closer, looking them over eagerly. "Oh, how lovely. Just... how _lovely_. Right after Draco too. What did they say their names were?"

"Vernon Dudley," One of the snatchers said with a nod towards Harry, "Barny Weasley. Penelope Clearwater." He said and Bellatrix clicked her tongue as she squatted down in front of Hermione.

"Penelope? Darling, I think we've met before." She said, a treacherous grin spreading over her face, "I can't be sure about you though." She added with a frown towards Harry. Fenrir growled.

"Why not bring your precious nephew down? He could tell." He said and Bellatrix sighed.

"Draco is... otherwise indisposed."

"Oh?"

"Didn't you hear?" Bellatrix asked conversationally as she drifted over to tap Ron's face with her wand, "He went rogue and helped that nasty brother-in-law of mine you brought me escape," she said and ran her tongue over lips, almost like she was tasting the memory, "Then he poisoned a bunch of Death Eaters right in front of the Dark Lord himself," she said chuckling darkly. Hermione gave a sharp intake, "Boy, did that piss my master off..." She told him, "We got quite a few of them back, but... Well, we couldn't save all of them." She grumbled.

"I wish I could of been there," Fenrir said darkly, "I would have torn his throat out myself."

"Maybe later," Bellatrix murmured, stepping back to watch all three of them closely, "Him and I have... other plans for the moment," she said and small, God-awful smile touched her lips, "You know, the Dark Lord said Potter might come for him. He said he was sure to make sure he knew Draco was in trouble," she smiled. Hermione's eyes flicked to Harry. Voldemort had meant for Harry to see then... but that didn't change the fact Draco still needed him. "In fact... I think I know how to fix our little problem right now. Jugson?" She called, "Do you remember what we found in my nephew's room when we searched it?" She asked. The man who entered - looking more like an infurius than a living person - gave a weak nod. "Fetch it. I think I have an idea on how we can confirm if we have the lovely Mr. Potter in our midst." She drawled and then knelt in front of Harry.

Harry was trying - he was trying _so_ hard - not to spit in her face.

"Vernon Dudley, hm?" She asked and grabbed his chin, "We'll see soon enough. If you aren't... well, I would love to tell you what we did with the last boy who lied to us. Would you like to hear the details?" She whispered and Harry clenched his jaw, forcing himself to keep the rage building higher and higher in his chest not to rise, "Oh, it was such fun. Strong. He has my blood, of course. I expected nothing less. Strong ones are difficult to break. They don't like to beg or plead. Him and I aren't done yet though. Maybe I'll let you watch if you're good." She grinned and let him go.

She was trying to get a reaction out of him. Trying to see how he would respond to hearing her talk about Draco. He wouldn't let her win though. Not yet. No, he was going to get Draco first. Then, when all was said in done, Harry would tear her limb from limb.

"Take some of their hair," Bellatrix said casually and from beside him, Hermione gave a small yelp. Harry also felt a sharp jolt of pain from the back of his head before it faded. "Be quick about it. I need to know if I'm making a call to the Dark Lord."

"You can call him now-"

"I need to be absolutely sure before dragging him back here after that mess with Draco," Bellatrix told him flatly and took a long breath, pinching the bridge between her eyes tiredly, "And someone take them down to - what is _that?"_ She cut herself off suddenly. Harry turned, realizing a bit belatedly that the snatchers had thrown their belongings on the table - including the Sword of Gryffindor. His heart thudded for a moment as he turned back to Bellatrix walking towards it - eyes widening as she ran her finger over the blade. Slowly, she turned to the three of them.

"Take those two down to the dungeons," she finally said with a nod towards Harry and Ron, "I think that Miss. Clearwater and I should have some... girl talk," she said with a cold smile. Ron jerked away at that - eyes ablaze with anger.

"Don't you _fucking_ touch her," Ron growled and struggled desperately against his bindings, "No! You can have me, keep me!" He tried, voice going from angry to desperate in seconds. Bellatrix scoffed.

"If she dies under questioning, I'll take you next," she told him wryly, yanking Hermione up by the hair. Bloodtraitor is next to mudblood in my book. Take them downstairs, Greyback, and make sure they are secure, but do nothing more to them — yet," she said darkly. Harry kicked out as hands grabbed at him. Trying to think of anything at all to at least postpone the nutjob taking Hermione from them, but before he could think of anything there a sharp stab of pain and his world went completely dark.

* * *

Harry wasn't sure how much time actually passed in the cells. He had used the two-way mirror Sirius had given him as a desperate attempt to contact his godfather, but the connection was weak given that it was shattered... Shattered. He laughed a bit hysterically. Despite having clung onto the pieces, he remembered the look on Sirius' face when he had thrown it against the wall when he got back to Grimmauld place. After the Department of Mysteries. After Draco... after Draco...

Harry took a long breath. This felt so similar. The panic and _pain_ after seeing Draco slipping away from them in Belltrix's grasp. Draco's words had played in the back of his mind - his promises not to leave them - to leave _him_ \- before vanishing into thin air as Harry threw himself in the spot he had been seconds before. It had been the first time he had yelled at Dumbledore too. Angry and volatile... Harry hadn't quite shared Draco's distrust for the man, but that night had him spewing everything nasty thing he could think of. Now he felt the same.

 _"Hermione-"_ Ron choked out. Harry didn't look up. Despite the fact they could all hear Hermione's screams, none had reacted as strongly as Ron. He called her name constantly with screams of his own before yanking uselessly against the chains. At some point, he managed to get free and tried to disapparate. Harry had tried a few times too and when they failed Ron ended up pounding against the wall with helpless sobs.

It was only when he heard the creaking of a door that he looked up and noticed someone throw a lump onto the floor. Ron rushed over to her.

"You're okay, you're okay, you're okay-" he chanted as the others also came closer. Luna silently walked over and began helping Ron rearrange her. She looked barely voided of any life, shaking with blood staining one of her sleeves.

"She's going... she's going to come back... back for me..." Hermione whispered, voice cracking. Ron resolutely shook his head.

"We're going to get you out of here-"

"We need to find Draco," Harry objected and Ron looked at him with disbelieving eyes, "You two can go ahead, but I'm not leaving here without him."

"Draco," Hermione whispered and gave a small whimper of pain when she sat up, "That... that's why she stopped. Someone said his name and she stopped. She said we would finish... later." She trembled, "I think I heard them talking to him. They put spells on one of the rooms, but I could still hear-" she started and then cut herself off with a sob. Ron clung to her tighter.

"What room? Where was it?" Harry asked, as calmly as he could, kneeling in front of her.

"Third floor," Hermione managed and swallowed, "I can take you there."

"We're finding you a way out!" Ron objected and Hermione shook her head.

"I'm helping." She said firmly and then flinched again when she tried to move. Harry opened his mouth to respond when a sudden pop followed. A pop and -

"Sirius?" Harry asked, standing up, "What the Hell are you doing here?" He whispered, looking over his shoulder with wide eyes to make sure nobody else could see them. Dean Thomas backed away warily as Sirius' approach. From behind him, Kreacher stood, peering at them all without much enthusiasm. "You heard me." Harry said, voice thick with relief.

"Thank God," Sirius said, looking around, "You're all here-"

"Not Draco," Harry said and Sirius paused, "Hermione says he's on the third floor and they're probably torturing him or-" he cut himself off before he could finish. No. No, he wasn't... Sirius stared with horror starting to spread over his features.

"Draco's been outed?" He asked, "But Ted said..." he trailed off and then shook his head, "Kreacher. Take them to Bill and Fleur's and - ah, there you are." Sirius said as another pop sounded. Harry turned to see -

"Dobby has come." A small voice squeaked. Harry gave a weak smile. He wasn't sure how Sirius had gotten in touch with him so fast, but he was grateful. There was really no telling how helpful Kreacher would be... though Harry did see a rapid rise of concern in the elf's face when Draco's name was brought up.

"I'm staying." Hermione said and Sirius turned to her, "I need to help Draco. Take the others back."

"If she's staying than I am." Ron said immediately. Dean Thomas and Luna looked at one another before also nodding. Sirius sighed. He didn't even bother to ask Harry. It was a ridiculous question anyhow.

"Does anyone _want_ to leave?" He asked. Griphook and Ollivander both raised their hands, "Wonderful. You two take them and the come back to get us out as soon as possible. The order will be Draco, Hermione, Harry - _don't argue with me -"_ he said when Harry frowned, "I can see she's hurt and you're going to be the one they're after most," he said and Harry scowled back, "Ron and - who are you?"

"Dean Thomas."

"Blood status?"

"Oh," Dean said nervously, "I'm a... muggleborn..." He said warily, Sirius nodded.

"You leave with Ron then since you're most at risk. Luna are you okay with leaving with me?" He asked. Luna smiled at him. Despite the gauntness in her face, there was still life in her. "Great," Sirius said, taking out his wand. "Let's-" he started, taking his wand out to unlock the cells only to freeze when footsteps followed. Dean and Luna backed away as Ron grabbed Hermione, but Sirius didn't seem scared. It was then that Harry saw who had entered. Slowly, Sirius pushed the door open.

"S- Sirius?"

"Peter," Sirius said voice eerily cold as he stepped out, "I had hoped we would have a chance to meet again. Every time we do you tend to find a way to crawl away from me," he told him, raising his wand, "You never were one to face anyone head on. What's your move now? Transforming into a rat? Calling for your master? Play your cards, Peter." He said. Then without taking his eyes off the man, gesturing the others forward. "Go." He said.

"Sirius," Pettigrew began, but Sirius had already struck so fast that it was actually impressive that the other man had managed to dodge it all. Harry raced past - Pettigrew might escape, but he was really no danger to Sirius. Besides, he had to find Draco. Sprinting up the stairs he looked around desperately for a sign of where to go as Ron grabbed their things still sitting on the table.

"Oh, hey." Someone said and Harry spun around to see a Death Eater calmly walking towards them, "I thought you three were with Draco?" He asked. Harry frowned. The tone was oddly casual for someone who just discovered that prisoners escaped. This immediately changed when Dean and Luna emerged from the stairway. "Shit. You aren't-" he began, diving for his wand. There wasn't much of a chance though as Harry launched himself at the man, knocking them both to ground. There was a brief thud as Harry jerked the wand from his grasp.

" _Stupefy!"_

The Death Eater slumped over. Harry got up, backing up quickly with a frown at the others. Ron and Hermione seemed just as puzzled except...

"Polyjuice potion," Harry said and Hermione's eyes widened, "That's why they took my hair. If they drank it and turned into me they could confirm my identity," he reasoned as Hermione nodded in agreement.

"They took the hair after saying they found something in Draco's room. He would have probably had some polyjuice on-hand for emergencies."

"But they took hair from all of us," Ron frowned, "Why?"

That was a mystery to him too. Maybe Draco knew. He would be sure to ask him later. Taking the wand, he sprinted upstairs, ignoring the others calling for him. The damn house was like a maze. Endless halls for beautifully furnished twists and turns. Third floor, third floor, third floor-

”What are you doing?”

Harry paused to find Hermione looking back at him. Only she wasn't in the ripped and muddied robes he bad last seen her in seconds ago. She looked oddly clean in a silk dress that was covered in blood. Harry raised the Death Eater’s wand. What was this? He opened his mouth to ask only for the sound of a door opening behind him to follow.

"I - _Harry,"_ a voice said and he spun around to see Ron stumbling into the hallway, "She's not the real Hermione!" He called. Harry stepped back. His voice sounded odd... like he wasn't actually saying those words to Harry at all. He glanced over at Hermione only to find her eyes widening slightly before yanking out her own wand.

" _Stupefy!"_ He managed right as Ron raised his own wand. With only seconds on his side, he dove towards the ground, barely missing the green light sent his way as he rolled on the ground. There was shouting downstairs and Harry could hear the real Ron's voice calling his name. Jerking up, he shot out another stunning spell before diving down before a loud thunk followed.

"Harry?!"

He popped up to find both Ron and Hermione pointing stolen wands at him with fake-Ron on the ground, unconscious. Based on the blood trickling down the side of his face and the marble bust on the ground one of them had smash his head in with the statue.

"Don't move!" Hermione warned him and Harry put his hands up. He was just about to say it was him when Hermione held up a hand.

"What is my patronus?" She asked and Harry opened his mouth, " _Say it!"_

"Otter! It's an otter," he said and nodded towards Ron, "And his is a Jack Russell Terrier," he said quickly and Hermione lowered her wand with a breath of relief, "Have you seen another one of me yet?" He asked and Ron shook his head. Great. So he had a doppelganger running around somewhere and still no Draco. Looking around, he started down the hallways - throwing open doors as he passed.

"Draco!" Hermione called lowly, "Maybe we should-"

Whatever she was about suggest was cut off by a loud yell and a door to their left slamming open with a loud bang. A string of curses filled the air as someone stumbled out, clutching their lip before sending an angry curse back in the room. Harry frowned - trying to make out the third person. They were around the same height with dark, messy hair and - oh, right. That was him. It appeared they found the third and final missing link of the trio.

"BELLATRIX!" He shouted, "YOUR FUCKING NEPHEW NEARLY TORE MY FACE OFF!"

Harry's blood went cold. He turned to the other two slowly, watching a similar realization hit their faces at the same time as the words began to sink in. Fake-Harry had been with Draco. The reason they would have taken all of their hair... was _possibly_ to see if Draco reacted well-enough to them to confirm their identities, but also...

" _Avada Kedavra!"_ He hissed and watched as the figure went down. Harry didn't even have time to register anything else as he threw himself towards the open door, sliding across the floor so he almost slipped. Hermione hissed his name, but he ignored her as he walked into a room that seemed oddly familiar in a way. It took him a moment to recognize that this would have probably been Draco's childhood room. It was organized just how he had always organized his things at school. Bed made with just the left side of the comforter folded, the books on the shelf were color coordinated (and he was sure, also cross referenced or whatever it was that Draco did with their textbooks), and various brooms were mounted on the wall along with a large cauldron that sat on the far side of the room.

Most importantly, however, was Draco... who was pointing a stake at him. Or maybe it was the broken leg of a chair... either way it was wooden and sharp and something Harry would rather not be stabbed by today.

"Draco," he began but Draco only shook his head - holding the stake out in warning. Harry had to fight hard not to give a telling reaction. Draco was covered in blood with his robes shredded and hands fighting to stay still as he took a step back. Harry raised his hands. "Draco. It's me-"

Draco only shook his head resolutely. Why wasn't he talking? Harry took another step and watched as Draco's face hardened. He didn't move away again, but there was a dangerous glint to his eyes.

"Draco," Hermione tried, sliding in next to Harry, "It's us, okay? We can prove it, but we need to hurry."

This time, the look in his eyes went a little crazed as Draco looked around desperately. When Harry tried to get closer he spun the wood around in warning, putting the point of it at his own throat with a challenging scowl. Harry immediately froze - heart skittering to a stop. Okay then. Nope. Not getting any closer. He threw Hermione a pleading look. Harry could maybe disarm him, but this wasn't his wand. If something went wrong Draco could react and do more damage.

"Draco, look!" Ron said and also pushed between them to hold up his watch, "See? It's us. I have the watch!" He said and Draco stared at him - silver eyes calculating. Harry had always been quite partial to Draco's eyes. They were the only part of him that Harry couldn't fully read. Over the years, he had learned all of his boyfriend's mannerisms... which wasn't too hard since Draco was really an expressive person in general, but he had never mastered his eyes. There was really no telling what he was thinking just going off of them. They were always calculating - forever figuring out some mystery problem that the world didn't know needed to be solved. It was fun to try and decipher on a normal day, but now? When Draco was too covered in blood and bruises and _God_ knows what else - Harry needed to know what he was thinking.

Tentatively, he took a step forward. Draco pursed his lips and pressed the point into his neck a bit more.

A blood-curdling scream came from downstairs. Bellatrix. Harry wondered where she had gone... she hadn't been one of them playing with polyjuice potion. Draco stiffened at the noise.

"What is she doing to them?" He asked and Harry spun around. Good. He had spoken. Sort of. His voice sounded hoarse - almost like he could barely use it. Not that he didn't try, "I told you I used the imperius curse on her! I made her! She didn't want to go along with poisoning them!" He said, thrusting out the stake towards them again before coughing a bit, leaning heavily on the wardrobe beside him. He didn't know what to do. Where were Dobby and Kreacher?

"Draco-"

Draco shook his head again with more force, wincing as he grabbed at his throat and coughed some more. What they Hell did they _do_ to him?

"We need to do something before Bellatrix gets here," Harry said, trying to hold himself together despite the cracking he was feeling in the center of his chest. Hermione was whispering lowly to Draco, but he just kept shaking his head resolutely. Ron looked like he was about to try again when Draco's eyes flicked to the open door behind them.

Oh, _shit_ -

"Hermione!" Harry tried to warn her, but Draco had already transformed - using his animagus for to sprint from the room, weaving easily between their legs. "Fuck - _Draco!"_ He managed and stumbled out of the room.

_"Stupefy!"_

Harry's heart stopped for a moment before recognizing the voice. Luna. Thank God. She sat at the end of the hall, looking pretty calm all things considered. Did she even know about Draco's anaimgus form? She must have considering how easily she stooped down to pick him up without a single question. Dean was behind her, carrying bags of everyone's stuff with a wary look behind him.

"Bellatrix knows we're missing," he said, voice taut with worry. A small pop interrupted him. Kreacher sighed. "You're back!"

"Very good," Luna agreed and handed Dean the fox, "Would you please take Dean and Draco back?" She asked the house elf. Kreacher sneered at Dean, but once his eyes landed on where Draco was unconciously laying in his animagus form, walked over without a single complaint.

"Wait. Where are you taking-" Harry started, but was cut off by another pop before Kreacher disappeared again. He felt a sharp rise of annoyance at how casually Draco had been taken from him - after clearly having been _tortured_ \- but he didn't have the time to play indignant boyfriend. Dean and Draco were safe for now. That was all that mattered.

"Weren't we supposed to go first?" Harry asked and Luna shrugged.

"Dobby was too busy helping Sirius to apparate people." She said, voice still somehow light and dreamy despite the danger looming overhead. Harry frowned. Sirius? Was he okay? Harry moved to go down to help him, but was cut off by another screech. Loud thundering followed up the stairs - a pounding of bare feet on wood before Bellatrix rounded the corner. Ron shoved Hermione behind him.

Bellatrix seemed too angry to voice any words. All that came out of her were furious, guttural shrieks that had the house shaking so hard that Harry thought there might be an earthquake. Another pop followed and Bellatrix spit.

" _You!"_

Harry raised his wand. There was another pop somewhere behind him. Inwardly he begged that Dobby and Kreacher had gotten the other three... had gotten Sirius out. Please, please, _please-_

" _Crucio!"_ Bellatrix screeched and Harry braced himself. He couldn't move. He wasn't sure if the others were still behind him and if he dodged then the spell could hit them instead. Hermione had been tortured already. The word had barely left Bellatrix's lips when a low growl interrupted and launched at her - sending the spell somewhere into the ceiling. Harry made out the outline of a black dog right as Bellatrix kicked it off. "-bloody mutt!" She hissed and Harry raised his own wand.

" _Incarcerous!"_ He growled and Bellatrix momentarily jolted before ropes began to wrap around her from the air. Almost immediately there was the smell of fire as they began burning off of her skin. Another pop. This time he felt a hand on his arm and looked down to find Dobby. "Go get Sirius first," he said lowly, not trusting Kreacher to do the job. Strangely enough, it was at that moment Kreacher _did_ appear to go directly to Sirius' side. Bellatrix hissed, ripping off the ropes as Sirius transformed back, grabbing Kreacher.

"Harry, _go!"_ He said and he latched onto Dobby. This time the pop was a lot louder as he was taken into the familiar darkness of apparation. Hermione's endless trips had gotten him used to the whole thing, but apparating with an elf felt a bit different. It wasn't so much of being squeezed through a small tube as it was like being hurled through a tunnel. When the light return it was on a beach with sea gulls screeching overhead.

"SIRIUS?!" He shouted and a hand gripped his arm, he turned and... yes. Yes, he was there. Harry laughed a bit hysterically before throwing himself at his godfather, hugging him tightly. After a minute, he turned to Dobby, "Thank you... so much," he said, shaking his head, "Thank you for coming for us. That was really brave." He told him.

"Kreacher came too." Dobby said humbly.

"Kreacher had no choice," Kreacher informed them flatly. Sirius rolled his eyes as he fell into the sand, "I only save Master Black because of orders."

"Technically," Sirius said, "I never said you had to come and get me," he grinned. Kreacher scowled.

"I only save Master Black because of his brother," he decided and without another word disapparated again. Harry snorted. The sound of the sea caught his attention - salt clinging to the air so that his sense felt more alive than they had in weeks. Sirius also seemed to enjoy it as he closed his eyes and inhaled deeply.

"Where's Draco?" Harry asked and Sirius' eyes opened again.

"In the house," he said and it was then that Harry noticed the cottage behind them, tucked between some sand dunes, "What the Hell were you doing there?" He asked, frowning, "Was there a horcrux?"

...ah.

"I, um, said... _his_ name. Snatchers came."

Sirius stared.

"I got upset," Harry informed him lamely. In response, Sirius grabbed a handful of sand and threw it at his face. He seemed too tired to do much more than that as he turned to where Dobby was playing in the water as the waves rose up to meet them.

"Do you have it?" He asked and Dobby paused before glancing over his shoulder. Then with a grin that Harry warily recognized as a mischievous one he turned back to them and snapped his fingers. A jar with holes fell from the air. Sirius reached out and caught with a smug smile. Frowning, Harry leaned forward to see a rat with three paws was desperately clawing at the sides. Peter Pettigrew.

"I knew you would try to run again, Peter. I was prepared." Sirius said happily.

"Can't he call You-Know-Who?" Harry asked. Sirius snorted.

"Not as a rat, he can't. He needs the mark," he said and stood up, tucking the jar under his arm so he could offer Harry an arm, "You know, Remus is here too, Peter. I'm sure he'll be _thrilled_ to see you," he chuckled darkly and a squeaking noise came from the jar, "What's that? Oh, don't be so silly, Peter. You only got two of our closest friends killed, framed me for murder, put me in Azkaban for twelve years, and lived as a beloved pet of my godson's best friend while Remus was homeless and Harry stuck in abusive house." He said conversationally. Harry grimaced. He would leave Sirius alone with Pettigew for now... it seemed like whatever vengeance Sirius was planning was rightfully deserved and Harry would be better not to intervene.

Besides, he had other concerns at the moment.

"Harry-"

"Where's Draco?"

"Upstairs," Bill answered, "But-"

Harry was already gone. He sprinted up the first set of stairs he came across and threw open the first door he saw. It appeared to be the right one because a small crowd was gathered inside. Dean was sat on one bed as he distributed the items they had lost back to everyone including what looked to be one of Draco's knife, his watch, and wand. Draco himself was back in his human form, but still unconcious as he laid in a different bed with Remus hovering over him.

"Is he alright?" Harry asked, briefly glancing over at Ron and Hermione to make sure they were unharmed. Remus glanced over him.

"It's hard to tell right now," he said slowly and Harry shoved himself next to Draco, moving closer to look him over. Remus had gotten all the blood off now and looked to be in the process of some healing. Harry absently ran his hand over his cheek. He was so pale. “Harry,” Remus said gently as he stepped away from Draco, “Did you… did any of you happen to see Narcissa or Lucius when you grabbed him?” He asked slowly. Harry frowned before shaking his head. They were both probably cowering away like the shitty parents they were. Remus closed his eyes.

“Why?” Hermione asked, “Does that matter for something?” She asked. Remus turned to sit at the edge of the bed, fingers tapping on his knee for a moment before finally answering.

“When Voldemort killed Lily, the last of her magic went towards protecting Harry,” He started with. Harry shook his head. So? What did that matter right now? “It is the only known instance of a person’s magic managing to protect their child from a killing curse, but… similar things have occurred.” He said slowly. 

“What?” Ron asked, “Like parents’ magic protecting their kids?” He asked. Remus nodded.

“Sometimes it is a trade off. Certain curses don’t affect people if their parents’ magic shield them. There are rumors that it happened with the Longbottoms. Neville was said to have been in the house when his parents were tortured, but either they didn’t bother with him or something protected him. Given Bellatrix’s lack of… boundaries I think it is safe to say they probably tried to use the cruciatus curse on him as well, but his parents’ magic protected him. It’s a branch of magic we don’t understand because it usually just happens.”

A knot began curling around Harry’s stomach, making his skin prickle slightly. He didn’t like where this was going. Not at all.

“What are you saying exactly?” He asked, eyes flicking to Draco.

“I’m not sure what they did to him,” Remus told him softly, “But my guess is that it should have either killed him or drove him mad. If neither of those things happened… there’s a chance Narcissa or Lucius played a role in that. Maybe both.” He said. 

Fuck. _Fuck_. 

Hermione gave a sharp intake, processing the words right as he did. Without thinking, he turned to start pacing. No. That was _bullshit_. Draco had done this for them - to keep his parents safe. They weren’t fucking allowed to die. They weren’t allowed to… no. Fuck. 

"Harry."

"We need to go back," he said and the group collectively made a variety of different protests, " _I_ need to go back," he amended, "Bellatrix kept going somewhere, right? She wasn't with Draco when he broke out and Hermione said she kept leaving for something. That means one - or even both of them are still alive," he reasoned, "I can go back and-"

"Are you mental?" Ron asked him, "Nobody is going back there."

"We can't let them die!" Harry shot back, "They're the reason Draco got into this fucking mess! He can't have gone through all of this just to have them die!" He said, voice shaking a bit towards the end. It would break his heart. Harry couldn't let that happen. He couldn't. It wasn't fair after everything they put him through that they - how _could_ they?

"There's a sense of irony in this," a voice said. Harry froze. Oh, this better be a fucking joke. Slowly, he turned to the doorway to find a familiar figure leaning against the doorframe. Rage boiled in the pit of his stomach.

"What," he asked darkly, "Are you doing here?" He whispered. Theo raised an eyebrow at him. Harry could see two figures behind also trying to peer into the room.

"Relax," he said and held up a pouch, "I heard Draco was here and hurt. I brought a healing poultice," he said calmly and tossed it to Remus. Harry narrowed his eyes and watched as Remus undid the wrapping to look inside. After a couple seconds of examination he gave Theo a nod and placed it under Draco's pillow. Theo's eyes followed for a moment - watching Draco's face with something Harry immediately decided he hated.

"You can leave."

"I need to talk to you," Theo said. Harry inwardly groaned. He did not want to talk to Theodore Nott. It probably wasn't fair to be so adverse. Harry knew he wasn't a bad person. Given the amount of bullshit he went through, Harry knew he should qualify as a very good person. The thing was... Harry never forgave Theo for leaving Draco crying on the floor of that closet at Slughorn's party.

Granted, that kind of _was_ the event that led to the confirmation that Draco actually liked Harry, but he wasn't giving credit for that. If you made Draco cry then you were pretty much dead to the world as far as Harry was concerned.

Reasonable? No. Cathartic? A little bit, yeah.

"I need to stay with Draco," he said calmly and Theo closed his eyes. He looked exhausted. Also, he was wearing muggle clothes, which was a little strange. A ragged pink sweatshirt and ripped jeans. It was an odd look considering Harry had seen him almost exclusively in high-end wizard robes.

"Draco doesn't look like he's going to be awake anytime soon-"

"I'm staying." Harry snapped. Theo looked at the ceiling.

"Fine. Then we'll talk here," he said and walked into the room. Harry glanced over to see who the others were lurking outside and then blinked when he made out Blaise Zabini and Pansy Parkinson of all people. They didn't come into the room, but both glanced over at Draco before giving Theo and Harry acknowledging nods. Pansy wasted no time heading back downstairs, but Blaise hesitated - looking at Theo for a moment. There seemed to be some kind of silent conversation before Blaise also went towards the stairs as well.

"We'll leave you," Remus said, clapping Harry on the shoulder, "If he wakes up then come get me. For now he should just rest." He added. Dean and Luna filed out as well. Harry turned to see Hermione blinking slowly, head resting slightly on Ron's shoulder in a very clear effort to stay awake. He felt a swell of shame for having not checked on her earlier.

"You should rest," he said softly and reached out to pat her knee, "Has anyone looked at that?" He asked, nodding to her arm. It looked at though it was still bleeding, wrapped hastily in some cloth that Harry could have sworn was part of the drapings on one of the windows. Ron grimaced at the sight of it.

"I... I can heal myself," Hermione grumbled and Harry frowned. He turned to Ron, giving a subtle nod. Ron returned it - his eyes holding a silent promise to investigate.

"Come on," Ron said, gently helping her up, "Fleur mentioned she has clean clothes for us," he told her. Hermione yawned. She looked too tired to even know what was happening as she stumbled out of the room. Harry shook his head. He needed to be better with checking in with her. Draco wasn't the only one tortured. Making a silent promise to join forces with Ron to look at her arm a bit later, he turned back to Theo.

Silence followed. Had they ever even had a conversation alone before?

"What do you want?" Harry finally asked. Draco shifted slightly in his sleep. Absently, he reached out and grabbed his hand, letting his thumb trail over his palm as he waited for Theo to get on with it.

"You're being a bit volatile," he finally said and Harry narrowed his eyes.

"Your first words coming into this room was that there was a sense of _irony_ ," he said flatly. Theo paused in picking at a string on his sweatshirt to look at him before sighing.

"You're right," he said and slumped into his chair, "That... wasn't necessary - or fair," he added and closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose, "I want to keep being angry with him about Winston..." he began and trailed off, shaking his head, "But I know it wasn't all on him. If Winston had just played along..." Theo said and then pursed his lips, "You know, it would be easier if he was bad at this." He said with a nod towards Draco.

"What do you mean?"

"Do you want to know what I've been doing for the past two years?"

"Oh, sure," Harry muttered sarcastically, "I'm shivering with anticipation."

Theo ignored him.

"Well, I set up six different portkeys to different countries. I figured I needed to get them done before You-Know-Who came to power so that they could be incognito. I knew he would try to isolate us. Make the war strictly a British problem. Well, I planned to go to America, Japan, France, Bulgaria, Russia, Uganda - see about going to where some of the other wizarding schools were, you know?" He said.

Harry nodded. He actually wasn't familiar with any other wizarding schools outside Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang, but that didn't really matter right now.

"I thought I would get back-up. Draco apparently beat me there," he rolled his eyes, "He had sources in every single one of them. They said they were just waiting for his word to come. I'm not sure really sure when he was planning on summoning them," he said. Harry blinked. He hadn't known that. Granted, their communication had been pretty limited and Harry wasn't there to know most of his plans, but that seemed like a pretty big undertaking, "Then I started looking for the Mirror of Erised."

"Why?"

Theo waved the question away.

"Part of an idea I had. I'll tell you about it soon," he said and then snorted, "I had also been planning on infiltrating Hogwarts to help eliminate the Death Eaters there. Except, guess what? Hogwarts actually is one of the safest places to be thanks to Draco Malfoy. Blaise also popped up to tell me that Draco had told him the exact room where the Mirror of Erised was in Hogwarts." He said and threw up his hands, "I can't do a single helpful thing apparently. It sucks because I wanted him to be bad at this. It would be so easy for me to say I-told-you-so if he was, but... damn. He's good." He shook his head, "You know he sent the kids from Hogwarts to Ilvermorny? They were in Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. He got them on another continent now."

"You sound bitter."

"No," Theo said, "I can't be upset with him winning the war for us," he said, smiling a bit, "It's just... like I said before. It would be nice to have a win." He said softly, "I want to do something to feel like I'm avenging my brother."

Harry felt his eyes fall. Well... he could maybe understand that a bit.

"What's this Mirror of Erised thing then?" He suggested, tempering his voice as much as he could given the circumstances. Theo gave a weak smile, seemingly appreciating the effort.

"It's... well, I wanted to use it to take out a good chunk of the Death Eaters," Theo said. Harry tilted his head. Maybe now wasn't the time to bring up that Draco had just been rumored to have poisoned a bunch of Death Eaters, "It has to do with the Deathly Hallows. I think... I've figured out where two of them are. The Peverells were related to the Potters so I'm sure you have one of them... based on the amount of sneaking around you do, probably the cloak."

"Yep." Harry said, popping the p at the end. Theo scoffed.

"The stone was with Dumbledore at some point... I think he's tried to give it you somehow, but I'm not sure-"

"Correct again. It's in a snitch that I can't open." He nodded. At this Theo blinked, but if he had any follow-up questions on that then he didn't ask.

"-and I don't know about the wand."

Ooh. Harry bit his lip.

"Draco snapped that in half last year before killing Dumbledore," he said, squeezing Draco's hand as he said the words. Theo turned to look at him, chin in his hand as he stared at him for a couple seconds before closing his eyes and taking a long breath, "Sorry..."

"That's... good," Theo said, voice oddly high, "Well. Then I guess my plan doesn't matter much," he said and Harry frowned. He got the feeling that wasn't quite true. For all of Theo's faults (Harry could go into detail on that if asked) he was... smart. Very smart. Tragically so. Whatever he was planning probably still had some semblance of usefulness.

"What did you want to do?" He asked. Theo yawned. He looked exhausted. Harry wondered exactly what he and the others had gone through the past few months... it would actually suck to have gone through endless trials only to learn your efforts were pretty much unproductive.

"Draco mentioned that Dumbledore put a stone in that mirror," he said, waving his hand, "That you could only get it if you wanted it, but didn't want to use it. I wanted to do the same thing with the Elder Wand. It would have been the perfect trap. Quirrell couldn't get the stone because You-Know-Who was technically the same person as him. However, a normal Death Eater could get it if their only intention was to just deliver it to Vol- You-Know-Who," he corrected himself sharply and sat up, a bit more alert, "So, either a bunch of Death Eaters show up to the mirror and we ambush them or they come one at a time and we pick them off. Either way, You-Know-Who is going to lose followers," he shrugged. Harry mulled the words over.

"That... could still work. He's still looking for the wand. He doesn't know it's broken," Harry said and Theo tilted his head, "We could put a decoy in there. Even better is if we time it with the Horcruxes." He said, heart picking up slightly. This could work.

"Horcruxes?"

"It's what's keeping him alive. We've been destroying them. There are six in total and we've gotten rid of three. Once we get rid of the other three then he's mortal," Harry explained and Theo nodded, "We could lure in Death Eaters to pick off his numbers, but if they decide to go one by one then they'll figure it out pretty quickly that it's a trap."

"Then they'll send a group and we just ambush them." Theo shrugged. Harry nodded.

"If we can time it with when the horcruxes are gone then we can just turn it into a battle," he said and Theo tilted his head, "We summon the reinforcements from all those places you mentioned so that our numbers are stacked and just wait. Assuming all the horcruxes are gone then he'll be mortal." Harry said and Theo leaned back. "I just can't think of a way to ensure he will be there himself-"

"I do," Theo said, eyes flicking him up and down, "If he knows you're there then he'll be there. You got the stone out of the mirror last time, right? He'll think that you'll be able to get the wand out of the mirror. Plus, you know, he wants you dead." Theo shrugged. Harry gestured to him in return. That was a very fair point. "Alright, so we're able to control the battle completely then. That also means we can decide the place. If we have enough time it can be someplace that we'll set up advantages. Secret hideouts, traps, things like that." He shrugged.

"Hogwarts seems like the obvious choice if we want complete surprise. He thinks it's in his control and we already have stuff in place thanks to Draco." he said with a nod. Theo nodded in return.

"I can sneak back there and talk to Minerva and Severus. Maybe Remus can help me move the Order there," Theo said slowly and put a finger to his lip in deep thought, "It is also where we can keep whoever decides to pop in from the other countries." He added. Harry grinned. Theo would have to talk this all over with Hermione to make sure it was actually a viable plan, but... it felt promising. Like they finally had an upper-hand. Theo hit his knee with an almost frantic, yet relieved laugh. "We have a chance." He breathed out.

"We have a chance," Harry agreed. Well, if they managed to find those other three horcruxes they did, "Thank you, Theo." He added, "I know... well, you know." He said, not bothering to to voice the words. Harry was sure he already knew. Sure enough, Theo gave a smile in return.

"I know," he agreed and patted his arm, "And good luck." He said as he moved towards the door. Harry would have answered, but it was at that moment Draco shifted slightly in his sleep, regaining Harry's attention. Theo paused by the door. For a moment it looked as though he might have stayed to see Draco wake up, but then thought better of it. Harry ignored him as he sat up, moving closer.

"Draco?" He said and squeezed his hand. He could feel a small twitch in return. Somewhere in the front of the room, the door opened again and Harry glanced over to see Ron and Hermione had re-entered. "I think he's waking up." Harry told them and brushed some hair from Draco's face. "Hey. Draco?" He tried again and for a second the fitful squirming went still. There was only the slow rise and fall of his chest. Maybe he wasn't ready to get up after all.

Then with a sudden jerk, Draco shot up. Harry felt a surge of relief. _Finally_. He walked over, kneeling down in front of him.

“Hey, how-”

Whatever else Harry had been planning to say was interrupted by Draco jerking away so forcefully that Harry almost fell back. Within seconds one of Draco’s knives was between them, glinting in the sunlight streaming in through the window as he yanked it from the beside table. Hermione gave a sharp yelp of alarm, putting a hand on Harry’s hand as he tried to register the shock. 

“Draco,” Harry finally said, voice fighting hard to sound calm despite panic beginning to bubble up in his chest, “It’s us. You’re not at the manor anymore-”

Draco narrowed his eyes and shook his head.

"Look around, Draco," Ron said and gestured to the room, "This is Fleur and Bill's house. You're safe." He promised. Draco edged away from them. Slowly, Harry reached out in an attempt to calm him, but Draco flinched away. Harry froze. There wasn't a single memory where... if they were arguing and Draco felt guilty he might cringe away, but... not like... not like this. Not as if Harry was an actual threat. Not as if he was _scared_ of him. He thought back to the manor.

Harry was going to kill every single last one of them.

He took a long breath, trying to focus on the issue at hand. Draco. They needed to figure out a way to let him know he was safe. Harry bit his lip. Right. He took another step forward, but Draco’s knife shot right back up with a hard warning in his eyes. Hermione reached out - though instead of moving towards Draco she grabbed where Draco's wand laid just out of his reached and put it in her pocket. His eyes snapped to her.

"It's just so you won't hurt us," she said calmly, "I would feel a little better if you put that knife down too. We know what it can do." She tried. Draco did not lower the knife. "Draco," she began, but was cut off by the door opening again. He heard a soft gasp and Harry turned to find Fleur standing by with a tray of food. She stared at them all before placing the food down and walking past them.

"Fleur be careful," Ron began, "He's-"

Draco lowered the knife.

Harry knew, logically speaking, that the Death Eaters had used their images to torture Draco. Not Fleur's. It was a fair reaction. Harry shouldn't be hurt by it... except... it was a little hard to not to see how quickly Draco had responded to her as he silently hugged her, not saying a word. Well... at least he knew he was safe now, right? He would know they weren't a threat anymore. Harry inched closer, but Draco tensed. Fleur paused in murmuring something to him in French and - why was she speaking French? Why couldn't the rest of them know what she was saying to him?

"Um," Fleur frowned and pressed a hand to Draco's cheek, "I... you need to leave," she said apologetically. Harry bit his tongue before looking at Draco. That was a joke, right? He... he wasn't really expected to leave him right now? "You're upsetting him." Fleur added quietly.

"He hasn't said anything!" Harry snapped. Draco flinched again. Fleur didn't say anything, but the look she pinned him with had the silent I-told-you-so written all over it. Harry looked away. Ron put a hand on his arm, squeezing tightly before gently pulling at him. After a few tries in which Harry stubbornly stayed in place he relented, shrugging Ron off as he marched from the room.

"Harry-" Hermione began, but he waved her off. It was fine. He understood. It was fine. Fine. Totally fine.

"Where's Ollivander?" He finally asked, "I need to see about my wand," he explained and Hermione nodded, pushing past him so she could lead him to the other end of the hall. For a cottage, this house felt pretty large. Most magical houses were like that though. He wondered if there were normally this many rooms or if it was simply trying to accommodate the influx of guests. Harry gave a small knock.

"Come in," a voice called and Harry opened the door to reveal both Griphook and Ollivander calmly sitting on a pair of beds eating what looked to be lunch. Both seemed to have recovered fairly quickly... Nobody flinched away when he walked into the room at least though both did jump at the sound of the door opening. "Ah, Mr. Potter." Ollivander smiled when he saw him, "How nice to see you, child." He said and Harry gave a weak smile as he shuffled in.

"Hi," he greeted, "I'm glad to see you're doing better," he added, softening his voice. Ollivander beamed back at him, "I... obviously, you're recovering, but I wanted to ask you about my wand," he explained and dug out the two snapped pieces to hold out. Ollivander frowned and set a cup aside, reaching out to pluck the wood from his hand and examine it closely. "I wanted to know if it could be fixed."

Griphook scoffed. Ron flicked the goblin off in return as Hermione lowly scolded him.

"I cannot repair this," Ollivander finally said, looking down at the wand with a grimace. Harry's heart sank, "I can, however, make you a new one."

Harry frowned.

"I thought the wand chooses the wizard," he said slowly, "How can you make one specifically tailored to me?" He asked, glancing over at Ron and Hermione who both gave bewildered looks in return. Ollivander smiled - eyes twinkling with something Harry couldn't quite make out.

"That is indeed true," he said and then picked up the pieces of Harry's wand, "However, there are reasons wands respond to us. Connections. Emotions. Things of that nature," he mused and tapped his fingers on his thigh for a few seconds as he thought, "Sometimes, it is beneficial to receive a second wand. Most don't realize they can outgrow their first. What your magic needed when you were eleven could be different to what your magic needs now. It's grown and so have you," Ollivander explained, "Besides, your core was of the phoenix that belonged to Dumbledore and responded to You-Know-Who's connection to you. I suspect that even if this wand survived the war it would weaken after the Dark Lord dies. Your connections are gone." He said simply. Harry frowned.

"Then what do you suggest?" He asked.

"Hawthorne," Ollivander said simply, "Gregorovitch - rest his soul - and I disagreed on many things, but Hawthorne was not one of them. It makes wands of paradoxes," he mused, "You know, the blossoms of Hawthorne heals, but when you cut their branches they give the distinct smell of death. They are often for more... complex wizards. Good for both healing magic and curses," he noted.

Harry didn't consider himself a great complexity, but maybe the choice was fair considering Hermione, Ron, and Draco each had their various complaints on how unreasonable he was.

"My first wand was made of holly," he said cautiously. Ollivander chuckled.

"Yes, yes. Often holly is known to choose wizards who are more inclined to... tempers," he mused. Harry scowled in return, "Or perhaps need to engage in spiritual quests. If I may be so bold, Mr. Potter, I might say your spiritual journey is coming to an end." He mused. Harry opened his mouth to respond when suddenly a different wand caught his eyes - sticking out innocently from Hermione's pocket not to far away from them.

"Draco's wand in Hawthorne."

Ollivander's smile widened.

"Like I said," he told him happily, "It is all about the connections. If I am correct, there is still some wood from the exact tree Mr. Malfoy's wand is made of. I would very much like to use that. Of course, your measurements don't have to be the same... this one was eleven inches, yes?" He asked and Harry nodded, "Good, good. Your father's was eleven inches too, but your mother's was ten and one-fourth... perhaps we'll try that. I don't know quite what core would be best..." He mused, "I do think phoenix worked quite well for you."

Harry agreed with that. He had no connections to any dragons or unicorns. Just Fawkes.

Ollivander's eyes lit up.

"I think I know," he said and looked around, "It will take me some time to locate these materials, but I believe I can make something for you to use against the Dark Lord when the time comes," he said - eyes bright with an excitement Harry was a little nervous by.

"Um, sure," Harry said, "Do you need any help?" He asked and Ollivander scoffed, already placing Harry's old wand to the side. Alright... that was apparently a no. He might have inquired more about how he planned on creating his wand while in hiding and under a limited time frame, but was distracted by Hermione speaking Griphook quietly in the corner. He glanced back at Ron for an explanation.

"She thinks there's a horcrux in Bellatrix's vault."

Of course there was. Harry gave Ollivander one last weak smile before refocusing on Griphook.

* * *

Harry Potter wasn't a helpless person.

He wasn't. It wasn't in his nature. Harry had survived things he shouldn't have survived - sometimes by mere coincidence or willpower alone. One thing was for certain - he had never just sat back during a fight. He was always up front trying to do whatever he could at any given moment. He wasn't helpless.

Except... when it came to Draco Malfoy.

Irony, he supposed. Harry had been accused to being reckless in the past. It had been a bit annoying in the beginning, actually. What did people expect from him? They put him in a household where he had to learn to survive on his own. They throw all these life or death problems at him and... what? Was he supposed to let the man who killed his parents return to power when he was eleven? To let some monster kill his friends when he was twelve? To let the man who betrayed his parents roam free when he was thirteen? Harry got involved in things. He knew that maybe he was a bit too... carefree with his own safety. For awhile, he just didn't quite understand why anyone cared. Sure, he knew his friends loved him, but surely they understood why he risked his life, right? They couldn't fault him for it.

His thought process changed rather quickly during their fifth year. Turns out, Harry didn't like it so much when the roles reversed. It was _Hell_ to worry over someone like that. To sit there not being able to do anything... to get scolded every time he tried. Harry wasn't suited for the patient, supportive friend role after all. Hermione and Ron were saints for being able to do it so well. Harry was still trying to learn.

He thought he had come pretty far in learning how to deal with Draco's ambitions. Now...

Now he was helpless. All he could do - the _best_ thing he could - was stay away. It killed him. Draco was in the same goddamn house as he was and Harry had to _stay away_. He couldn't stand it despite the numerous distractions that presented themselves.

Mostly he, Ron, and Hermione were trying to iron out their plan with Griphook on how to rob one of the best guarded banks in the world, but honestly Harry wasn't that interested. He was interested in the fact his boyfriend hadn't said a single word since he had woken and couldn't be in the same room as him. Hermione had made some progress with him. He wouldn't be within ten feet of her, but at he didn't mind seeing her. The same couldn't be said for Harry.

Ron made some improvements too... though this was through the watch. Draco might not be speaking, but Ron got the closest given that Draco had decided sharing his feelings through their connecting charm was okay.

"Do you want to try?" Ron asked one evening as Harry picked at his food from Bill and Fleur's dining room table. He out the watch, "He's feeling anxious. Maybe you help calm him down."

"Will he know it's me?" He asked and Ron hesitated. That would be a yes then, "Probably wouldn't be helpful then. I make him the most anxious." Harry said miserably and Ron retracted the watch, gnawing on his lower lip with a look of guilt as he tucked it away. From beside him, Remus squeezed his shoulder.

"Give him time," he said, watching Sirius enter the room warily. Harry hadn't seen a sign of Pettigrew since his godfather entered the cottage... he was a little frightened to ask what had happened to him. "Hey." He added to Sirius.

Sirius plopped down at the table too - also looking miserable for some reason.

"Hey, Moony." He yawned, rubbing his eyes, "What are you doing back here? Shouldn't you be with Teddy?" He asked. Harry frowned. Remus had left? When? Who the Hell was Ted-?

" _Your baby was born?"_ He asked, momentarily stunned by the revelation. He felt as thought he had just learned Tonks was pregnant. He supposed he had seen how far along she was only a few days ago, but... wow. Remus grinned - eyes flicking Sirius over a second before giving a nod. "I - congrats, Remus. That's great!" He said. Sirius also gave a smile though it wasn't the one Harry was used to seeing on him. It seemed more... cautious somehow.

"Thank you - and he's with Dora now," Remus told Sirius, "Both are in Andromeda's safe house. Well, their new one," He added with a wary glance at Harry. "I do have something to ask you both though." He said. Harry frowned. Oh. That wasn't good. Remus laughed at the look on his face, "Nothing bad, I promise," he said. Harry wasn't sure he believed him, but nodded anyways. "We talked it over and wanted to ask... well, firstly, Harry," he said, turning to him, "Would you be his godfather?"

"Me?" Harry asked, blinking a few times, "But... but what about Sirius?"

"Excuse me?" Sirius frowned, "I am taken. By _you_. How many godchildren do you think people can have? The limit is one. I will only accept one. If I took every baby as a godchild then literally everyone would be asking me. You have to establish boundaries. There can only be one. If you die then maybe I'll take Teddy," he said and pointed a finger at him, "But you're not allowed to die." He warned. Harry rolled his eyes before turning back to Remus.

"I - yes, of course," he managed, absolutely delighted by the idea. Remus grinned and him as Harry let the news settle in. He was going to be a godfather. He had never really thought too far into the future to imagine kids or anything like that. It felt to surreal... it felt surreal even now.

"He'll also need a middle name..." He said, turning to Sirius who frowned.

"Moony, I adore you, but Edward Sirius doesn't sound nice together even if it is very flattering."

"We were actually hoping you would you choose the middle name," Remus corrected gently. Harry wasn't sure why, but he got the feeling that somehow Remus already knew what the name was going to be as Sirius blinked a few times - looking stunned to answer.

"You... are you sure you don't want to choose? You don't want him to be named after you?" He asked cautiously. Remus only shook his head. "Not... not after James or Draco or anything?" He asked. Harry frowned at that. Edward Draco also sounded awful... so he was a little relieved when Remus shook his head again.

"Whatever you think is a good name, Sirius." He said softly.

Sirius looked down at the table for a few seconds.

"Regulus." He finally answered quietly. Remus nodded.

"Edward Regulus it is," he agreed and Sirius looked torn between crying and melting into the ground. Harry smiled weakly at him. The topic of Regulus had been a particularly emotional one since the locket... Harry had even caught Sirius talking to Regulus' portrait a few times. No matter how much consoling there was, it felt like Sirius would never forgive himself for not knowing the truth about how his brother died and what kind of person he was.

Sometimes, Harry wished he had siblings so he could maybe understand the relationship. He had long decided he never would.

Deciding Remus was really the best person for Sirius at the moment, Harry quietly left them alone, strolling around the house. He wanted to visit Draco - or at least attempt to. He gave a weak look towards the door at the top of the staircase and sighed. What he actually needed to do was talk to Griphook... again.

Harry hated talking to Griphook, but their plan was finally starting to come together.

"We should leave soon," Hermione said a few hours as they sat on the cliff outside the cottage, watching the waves crash down below. He turned to her as Ron hummed in agreement.

"Draco isn't better yet," he said, running a hand through his hair, "We got to at least wait until he starts talking again. Fleur says he took a muting potion or something," Harry said. The ocean seemed to roar in anger below, "It was to keep him from telling anything." He added darkly. Draco really had planned for everything, hadn't he? Harry sighed. It had been long enough so that the potion _should_ have worn off already... or maybe he just didn't want to talk to Harry.

An awkward pause followed. Ron and Hermione exchanged wary looks over him - they had probably already prepared whatever they were about to say as they always did when they thought something would upset Harry.

"Maybe," Hermione began, taking one his hands in her own, "It would be better to leave Draco here."

....no.

"Mate, he isn't in the best shape. Is it really fair to drag him along into more danger?" Ron jumped in, "Fleur is here. If we could trust anyone in the world with him it would be Andromeda or Fleur." He said, "So we're really lucky we have him someplace this safe. What's the sense of taking him from that? He can heal and be with people who care about him and away from any Death Eaters who might come looking for him-"

"Yes!" Hermione agreed, "And we won't have to worry because we'll know where he is, right?"

Harry took a long breath.

"We don't know if this place will stay safe. I'm not leaving here without him."

"Harry-"

"I can't!" He snapped at them and stood up, bitterly kick a rock over the side of the cliff so it tumbled down into the sea below. "I... can't leave him," he said and Hermione looked helplessly at Ron. He reached out, regret touching his expression and Harry knew before he even opened his mouth this was going to be a 'tough love' type of situation.

"It isn't fair to make him be around us when he's like this," he said and Harry looked away, "Do you honestly think he wants to be in a closely confined space with us when he can barely look any of us in the eye?" He asked and held up the watch around his neck, "Harry, all he feels is confusion and anxiety and fear. The only time he has any other emotions to send me is when he's with Fleur and even then it's just... flashes of reassurance." He said.

Harry looked up at the sky. He would _not_ cry.

"I can fix it." He finally choked out. Hermione gave him a pitying look before folding her hands together.

"I don't think anyone can right now, Harry. We just have to... to get rid of the horcruxes, okay? Theo told me what you two discussed earlier. It could work. The casualties for our side might even be minimal. We just have to do our part," dhe said, "For Draco and Teddy and... all of them." She said and Harry looked at her. Something must have shown in his face because she launched herself at him, burying her face in his shoulder, "I'm sorry." She whispered.

Harry didn't respond. He didn't _want_ to give in. Didn't he just promise himself that he would never leave Draco ever again? And now...

"I know it hurts," Sirius said a few hours later when he found Harry hiding away in an empty room with his head between his knees on the floor. "Do you want me to come?" He asked and Harry shook his head. "It isn't easy having to... stay away when you love somebody. Even if it's what's best for them." He said slowly and Harry dared a glance up at him.

"You agree then?" He whispered, "I should just leave him here?"

"I... don't think Draco is quite up for robbing a bank," Sirius said slowly. "He can barely sleep for more than an hour at a time. Remus says some of the stuff they did-" he started and then stopped at the look on Harry's face. "He'll get better. He will. You just need to give him time."

"And that's all I can do because he can't even look at me. Why me? It isn't nearly as bad with Ron and Hermione!" He said bitterly. Sirius sighed and sat down in front of him. Harry waited for a lecture on how he shouldn't be upset that Draco was making some progress with them - as if he didn't already _know_ that. Instead Sirius placed a hand on his knee and squeezed.

"I think you know the answer to that already," he said and then grimaced. "And... I do think when he is better he is going to be very eager to get back to you. Trust me, I have personal experience on that front." He mused. Harry opened his mouth to respond only to pause when the words registered.

"You do?"

"Hm?"

"You said you have personal experience," Harry asked him curiously, "What happened?" He asked. As open as Sirius was about... well, most things in the world, Harry realized that he didn't really know much about some of the more personal details of Sirius' life. Most relationships mentioned were just briefly labeled as some person he may have dated or hung out with no names attached. Hell, Harry didn't even know Sirius _had_ a brother for the longest time.

"Oh," Sirius said, looking uncharacteristically uncomfortable as he shifted, "Well, when I was in Azkaban I, um, just had some time to think about stuff," He said and then teasingly nudged Harry, "You know, vengeance and what I was going to do when I caught Peter." He smiled darkly. Once again, Harry wondered what happened to the man, "But I guess I was also thinking about how... hurt I was that nobody out there tried to say I was innocent." He said slowly as if choosing every word with extreme precision. "It really bothered me. I was allowed visitors and he - I mean, nobody ever came."

Harry hadn't thought of that.

"I'm really sorry, Sirius."

"Hm," Sirius shrugged, "You know, I had a huge confrontation planned for when I got out. Granted, I was half-mad at the time. I wanted to ask exactly why nobody came and asked my side of things or even to just demand for me to have a trial. Even if it didn't work it would have been nice if someone had just... tried," he said and then yanked lightly at his hair, "But then I did get out and when I saw... those people... it didn't seem to matter anymore. I realized I had already forgiven him. Them." Sirius winced. Harry decided not to call him out. Draco may call him oblivious, but Harry wasn't _stupid_. There wasn't exactly a huge list of people on who he could be talking about. "The point is, you didn't even do anything _wrong,_ Harry. Draco is dealing with trauma now and when he gets through it - which he will - then he's going to come back to you." Sirius smiled gently.

"How long is that going to take though?" He asked. Sirius sighed.

"I wish I could tell you, PJ." He said solemnly. Harry tilted his head, "Prongs Junior," He clarified, "It really annoyed your mom when we called you that. To make her feel better we all started calling you LJ for awhile. You know, Lily Junior. She thought it was real funny up until you started calling yourself LJ. So then we switched to JJ for James Junior. Apparently, that didn't resolve the problem and you just were confused as to what your name was during the first year of your life." He shrugged. Harry scoffed.

"This is the godfatherly wisdom I'm going to need. Thank you." He said lightly and Sirius snorted as he leaned forward to ruffle his hair.

"He loves you, you know. Not even the Dark Twat can take that away." Sirius promised and Harry swallowed all of his internal mourning to smile at him. He was probably right. Sirius was right about most things, after all. That didn't make it hurt any less... but he did need to do what was best for Draco. And if Draco needed to be away from them. From him... then Harry would just have to accept that.

Ron, Hermione, and Harry left for Gringotts the next day.

* * *

Breaking into Gringotts did not go as planned. Griphook betrayed them and fucked off with the Sword of Gryffindor and they had to steal a dragon of all things.

But hey! They had the bloody cup - and more basilisk fangs. Harry wasted no time destroying the thing as he collapsed on the ground after having been washed up on the side of a lake. Groaning, he rolled over. Four down. Two to go.

Except he had no idea what the last two were and where they could be.

"A dragon," Ron was muttering, "A bloody dragon!" He grumbled and sat up with a wince, "Nobody is ever allowed to ask me to do any favors ever again. I rode a dragon out of a bank for the sake of the wizarding world. I've done _enough!"_ He said, sitting up with a wince. Harry let out a snort as he got up. He was about to join in Ron's tantrum when he saw Hermione by the edge of the lake - face pure white.

"What's wrong?" He asked, noticing she had brought out the radio and switched it to Potterwatch.

"I wanted to see if they saw anyone following us or how fast the Gringotts thing spread, but..." She pressed a hand to her mouth. Harry inched closer. The words were crackling at first - static interrupting until Lee Jordan's voice smoothed out when Hermione shook the radio.

"-last week Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley were said to have been there, but luckily escaped. Nobody knows what caused the explosion, but it appears to have taken out Fenrir Greyback and ten other Death Eaters. Reports say You-Know-Who and Bellatrix Lestrange were not at the manor when the explosion happened so don't let down your guard," Lee continued. Harry's eyes widened. Malfoy Manor? It _exploded?_ How? When? "Concerns have risen on Draco Malfoy. There have been rumors about what side of the war he is really on. Whatever you believe we have no evidence to show whether he was or was not in the manor at the time of the explosion. I -" Lee's voice was cut off by buzzing and a sudden gasp of excitement, "Breaking news! Potter, Granger, and Weasley have been spotted at Gringotts riding a dragon!" He began and Hermione turned down the knob down.

"How?" Ron finally asked. Hermione only shook her head.

"It could have been another trap Draco left behind."

"But what about his parents? He wouldn't do that if they were in there-"

"How do we know they _were?_ I saw no sign of them while we there."

Harry closed his eyes, reaching up to tug at his hair in frustration. What the Hell? What the _Hell?_

"There's nothing we can do about it now," Harry said, voice tight. If they were dead... well, he couldn't do much about it. Maybe it was part of an escape plan? Harry shook his head. He didn't know what to do. His missed Draco.

"You're right," Hermione said and flicked her wand so the radio went back in her back. Harry fell back on the bank, staring up at the sky. He wished it was night so he could see constellations. Not thinking, he reached up, tracing where he imagined Draco's cluster of stars to be and took a long breath. Two more... just two more horcruxes... something of Ravenclaw's was the best bet. Harry honestly knew nothing about her. Maybe he should have done more research on the founders when he knew-

Hermione gasped.

Without thinking, Harry jolted up and brought out the wand he stole from the Death Eater only to see Hermione had began setting up camp. Only there... there were three figures. Harry slowly rose, brows furrowing as he made out Hermione standing by a crackling fire while Ron knelt next it - also frozen as he put logs into the hearth. Shit. They had been followed-

Before any of them could react there was a flash of color and the figure crumbled to the ground. Harry sprinted over as Ron grabbed Hermione's hand. The woman on the ground was bleeding - sleeves rolled up so they could see her Dark Mark moving and then going eerily still on her skin as she gave one last shudder of life. Hermione was twirling around in an attempt to find who had attacked when Harry knelt down.

"WHO'S THERE?!" Ron shouted and Harry yanked out a familiar looking knife. "I see someone there-" Ron began in the distance. Hermione turned as well, but whoever there must have already left because she was cursing under his breath. Harry kept staring at the knife.

"Draco?" He frowned and then glanced up when another pop sounded. On the other side of the fire was a lone figure, sprawled out in a folding chair Hermione had set up earlier with his leg thrown over the arm. Sure enough, Draco Malfoy was there watching them all with obnoxiously ambiguous eyes. He had something in his hand that was wrapped in cloth. Harry tried to remain calm. "What are you doing here?" He asked. Draco's eyes slowly flicked to him, lips thinning as watched him warily. He got up and held his hand out for the knife. Harry slowly placed it in his hands.

"You left me."

_Ow._

Harry felt like he had been kicked in the stomach. Draco's first words since waking up post-torture and it was... Harry hadn't _wanted_ to leave him. Besides, Draco hadn't particularly shown any interest in joining them. It wasn't safe. He wasn't okay and Harry couldn't drag him into this danger knowing everything he went through-

Before he could voice any of this, Draco held out a piece of cloth with something wrapped inside, placing a piece of parchment in his hand. Slowly, Harry tore off the string holding it together and read:

_Mr. Potter,_

_I cannot say for certain this wand will respond to you. In theory, I have done all I can to ensure it connects with your magic, but only you will be able to tell. It is 10 ¼ as your mother's was and made from the very same Hawthorne tree as Mr. Malfoy's wand is made out of. Finally, I have decided to give you a dual core. They are extremely rare, but I feel you would be able to control it. Traditionally, only dual cores are used to make up for something one core may lack. I have decided to experiment with making them both equal for your wand given your upcoming trials. _ _ I believe your godfather's wand contains two cores of unicorn hair and a pixie wing. It was your godfather, in fact, who suggested your first core be made of hippogriff talon. Another unusual one, but this Buckbeak of his seemed pleased to be of assistance. Finally, your second core is a phoenix feather once more. I will not say which phoenix specifically... only that your loyalty to your late headmaster seems to have not gone unnoticed in your time of need. _

_ Good luck, _

_ Ollivander _

He unwrapped the cloth and sure enough... a wand sat inside. How Ollivander was able to craft this so quickly and with the materials he claimed to have used was uncertain. He supposed he had no reason not to trust him.

Harry bit his lip. Slowly, he reached down and picked up the handle of the wand with a silent plea it would do the job as well as his original one. There were a few seconds where the grip around the handle went cool for a moment - giving a small tingle throughout his fingers before turning warm. That was a good sign. Harry raised the wand to levitate a rock from the ground, but before he could get the incantation out the rock was already rising.  


"It works," he said, a little surprised, "I didn't even have to say the spell."

Hermione looked it over warily.

"You'll need to practice with it," she said, "I-" She began, but was silenced by Draco turning around and walking into the tent. Harry watched him go.

"Can I see the watch?" He asked Ron. Wordlessly, he tossed it to him. Harry gave a nod of thanks before slipping inside the tent as well. Draco was lying on the bed - staring at the ceiling. Harry cleared his throat. "Can I come closer?" He asked. Draco glanced over at him and shrugged. It was more than he usually got so Harry considered it a win as he made sure to stay in his line of sight, kneeling next to the cot he was in. "Hold yours." He instructed, tapping the watch. Draco looked at him and then slowly grabbed at the end of the chain around his neck.

Harry wasn't as well acquainted with this sort of watch communication as Draco and Ron were, but he did try to sort out his emotions enough to concentrate on everything he had been carrying the past week or so. The worry and heartbreak and... well, how much he had missed him. Draco's fingers twitched around the gold. Hopefully that meant it went through okay. Draco tapped on the watch in Harry's hand. Right. He squeezed it.

There was a sharp influx of confusion and... uncertainty before finally transition into raw panic. Harry bit his lip.

"I didn't want to leave you," he said. Draco rolled his eyes. At least that was a somewhat Draco-ish reaction, which might be considered improvement. "Hey," Harry said and reached out. Draco watched the hand for a moment, but didn't move away. Harry took that as a cue to brush the hair from his face. "...I'm sorry," he finally said, voice going quiet. "You know that I don't know what I'm doing half the time, right?" He asked. Draco's lip twitched. Not quite a smile, but almost. "I still don't know what to do," he admitted with a sigh, "I wish I could be better for you-"

"Don't fucking start." Ron's voice came from outside the tent. Harry turned around, a little alarmed at how easily they could be overheard... or perhaps Ron was just particularly attuned to Draco and Harry's bullshit, "I already resolved this argument with you last year." He said. Harry opened his mouth to respond, but notice Draco shift from the corner of his eye. When he turned back to him there was an actual grin on his face. Harry scoffed.

"Him and Hermione still aren't dating," he added quietly so Ron wouldn't hear. Draco shook his head before squeezing the watch. When Harry picked the other up he felt a wave of exasperation. "Yeah, I know. Ron left for a bit too, which really pissed Hermione off. We might have to wait awhile." He said and Draco frowned, "It was the horcrux. It made us all a little mad, but we only have two left now." He said with a wary sigh, "So that's progress at least."

Draco nodded. Harry bit his lip.

"Do you need to change into your animagus form?" He suggested, voice softening, "That helps you sometimes, right?" He asked then a sudden realization hit him, "Do the others realize your gone? Fleur and Remus? Sirius?" He asked. Draco grimaced before giving a small nod. "Not happy about it?" He asked and Draco's expression told him all he needed to know. Fleur would have been not an easy person to escape from. "You didn't have to come, Draco."

Draco scowled, eyes narrowing.

"I'm happy you're here! But I just... I want you to be better."

This was not the right thing to say. Harry's fingers barely brushed to watch and he felt the heat sizzling of it with annoyance. Draco shoved him away.

"I didn't - alright," he grumbled, "You were _tortured_ ," he said and then looked at him. "Can I please stay?" He asked and Draco looked back at him. Several seconds passed and he wasn't sure if he was going to kicked out or not... Eventually, Draco moved over slightly, making room on the cot. Huh. That was even better than what he was expecting. Harry didn't need prompting as he climbed in next to him. "Are you sure this is okay?" He asked, a little suspiciously. This seemed like a big step for someone who couldn't be in the same room as him a few days ago. He checked the watch. More exasperation. Fine then.

"Alright, alright," Harry murmured and settled more into the cot. He was kind of tired... exhausted, actually. Now that Draco was actually _here_ in his arms and somewhat okay the events of everything so far finally seemed to settle down on him. He yawned, rolling over slightly so he could entangle their legs, "Love you." He murmured. Draco tapped his hand. Oh. Right. He squeezed the watch.

Good news: Sirius was right. Not even the Dark Twat himself could have changed the response.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soooooo the truth is that I love Wolfstar and Teddy Lupin equally and want them both to exist lol. I've always had a theory that in canon the #1 reason Sirius and Remus didn't get together was bc there was some unresolved stuff regarding the fact Remus actually thought Sirius was guilty. Which, like, yeah, the evidence said so, but I'm sure Sirius was super hurt by that. They just BARELY touched on it in the POA but I just thought it felt wayyyy too brief. Sirius could have forgiven him that quickly, sure, but would Remus have ever really forgiven himself? 
> 
> Idk fam. More on that later. I also really love Tonks so I'm gonna try my best to do right by her too.
> 
> But yeah! That's the chapter. Hopefully it sorta makes up for the last one lol.


	18. Year Seven (In Which Draco Reunites with Old Friends)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, I'm sorry if the chapter suddenly disappeared while you were reading. I had to re-upload the chapter bc I accidentally put the wrong date at first and it's a whole thing to fix it. It doesn't look like anyone commented or anything so I think we got by with minimal interruptions lol.
> 
> WARNING: I need update the tags still, but heads up that torture is mentioned here. I'm not going SUPER in detail, but via references you're going to get a pretty decent idea of what happened to Draco during those weeks.
> 
> Weirdly enough, outside of that, this was probably the most humorous chapter we've had in awhile so enjoy lol

Five. Four. Three. Two. One.

It was going to be over. It was going to stop. Just five more seconds.

Five. Four. Three. Two. One.

He could do it. Five seconds. No more pain. Five seconds.

Five... Four... Three... Two...

Draco woke up to his ears being scratched.

Which, first of all, what the Hell?

It took him a moment to realize his surroundings were slightly tinged and proportions off. He must have slipped into his animagus form during the night. It wasn't something that happened often, but when he was particularly stressed his body seemed to automatically shift into his other body. It was a little annoying. Even more annoying was that Harry was enjoying it far too much. He popped his head up and growled.

"Good morning to you too," Harry yawned and mused already very messy hair. "Are you going to stay like that today?" He asked and Draco shifted back as an answer. "Alright, well, Ron is making breakfast." He chuckled. Draco beamed - pushing aside any residual trepidation. Ron was an _excellent_ cook. He tried to deny it, but given the fact he was Molly Weasley's son and had the appetite of a small army meant it was a hard fate to escape from. Harry scoffed as Draco made his way to the exit of the tent in preparation of whatever feast was being laid out for them.

"Hey," Ron greeted, "I made - okay," he said when Draco scooped up a few slices of bacon. When was the last time he ate without the concern of being poisoned? Granted, Fleur had made him quite a bit of food, but... the world had been cloudy then. It was hard to really describe. Detached, maybe? No, that would mean he couldn't feel anything. He definitely was hopped up on fear and stress - whispers haunting the back of his mind that it was all another trap. A trick. A way to make him talk.

He _wouldn't_ talk. If he talked that might mean he said something he shouldn't. Draco knew too much. He had always prepared for the scenario he might get caught. In fact, he made several plans for it. Silencio wasn't the only spell that could make one temporarily mute. Draco had made a batch of muting potion to keep himself from revealing anything given the situation called for it. It had long warn off - but he still managed to stay silent without it. Not daring to breathe a word in fear of what might come out.

He knew, in theory, it was fine now. He was safe. Harry was here (the _real_ one) and speaking would actually be a benefit... but... part of him... just couldn't.

Draco knew he still needed to try.

"Thank you." He managed, voice raspy and frail as he grabbed some eggs from over the fire. Ron shot him a startled look, but it quickly turned into a smile as he nodded in response. Harry plopped down next to him, getting his own food before moving a bit closer so they were shoulder to shoulder. The rest of the meal consisted of the other three updating Draco on everything that had happened over the past year or so. Draco nodded, trying his best to be attentive as he gulped down some orange juice Hermione had packed from Fleur and Bill's house.

"...and that's when we jumped off the dragon into the lake," Hermione was saying and fixed him with a baffled look, "How did you find us anyways?" She asked, looking around nervously. Draco swallowed his food. He looked for the words and was a little frustrated when they didn't come. Instead he took the watch from around Harry's neck and tossed it to her. He tried to put all the explanation he could into it... well, given that it only allowed you to transfer feelings it wasn't quite sufficient, but... well, hopefully it worked.

Draco had known about the Gringotts plan from the beginning. He was in the same house as them after all, and he was literally a trained spy. It hadn't been hard to listen in on even if he had been out of sorts. It had been comforting, actually. To sneak around without anyone knowing he was listening in. It reassured him that this wasn't some sort of huge ploy to make him feel safe before... well, you know. Before... Nevermind.

Draco had actually been in Gringotts for a few minutes to join them when he finally escaped Fleur's overprotective clutches only to then see a dragon burst through the ceiling.

And honestly. It wasn't hard to follow a _dragon_. Admittedly, he did luck out when he saw them jump off. If he hadn't noticed he might still be following that dragon. It did turn out to be a bit of a detriment though. Draco hadn't been the only one following them. His eyes flicked to where Mora's body was still on the ground by the bank. He grimaced. Mora had actually been a fairly recent recruit that Draco had known. Honestly, she might have just kept following the dragon if she hadn't noticed Draco. He felt a little bad at having led her to his friends, but... well, he took care of it in the end.

"I see," Hermione hummed, letting go of the watch, "Well, we better leave soon then. We aren't exactly well-hidden," she sighed, looking around before grimacing at Mora's body and slowly putting down her breakfast, "Anybody have ideas as to where the next horcrux might-?" She began, but was cut off by an owl circling over them. Draco frowned. It was hard to tell given how high it was, but that almost looked like...

Ether?

Draco hadn't seen his family owl since he was eleven. He frowned, standing up to hold out his hand when the owl dipped down with a roll of paper in its beak. Curious. He reached out, lightly running his fingers over the feathers as he let the bafflement settle over him.

"That's..." Hermione said with a flicker of recognition working over her expression. It quickly changed to raw panic as she turned to Harry and Ron with wide eyes. What? Yeah, it was concerning they had been found, but they were about to leave anyways. He turned to give them all a slight tilt of the head. Harry bit his lip.

"Draco," Hermione finally said, "Before you open that... there's something we need to talk about," she told him softly. Too softly. He felt his concern swell at it. Why was she looking at him like that? "Um, we... we heard yesterday that Malfoy Manor... it went up in flames." She explained, "There was an explosion. I don't really know much else about it." She told him. Draco stared.

Huh. He... didn't know how upset he was about that. It had been his home for years. There were memories there, sure, but the place was already tainted from the war. Honestly, Draco didn't care much about the house. As long as...

"My parents?" He managed to ask, heart thudding a bit louder. This time, Ron took over.

"We don't know, mate. That letter might be a good sign," he said and then glanced between Harry and Hermione, "But... Remus had a, um, theory," he explained. Draco felt a stab of impatience. What? Why couldn't they just spit it out? Perhaps Harry felt the rise in tension because he spoke next, reaching up to lightly tug Draco's hand until he sat back down.

"He thinks that you should have either died or gone mad from the torture," he explained. Draco shrugged. Yeah, it was a little surprising he held up so well. Voldemort himself had a hand... and then decided it would be more fun to keep him alive as some sort of torture toy. Then it had been Bellatrix. Others too, but it all blurred together for awhile until Harry, Ron, and Hermione's faces took their turns as his tormentors. His skin prickled at the reminder - whispers of fire still etched on his skin with cuts and screams and the twisting and -

He shook his head clear of it, taking a slow breath to slow down his heart.

"So?" He finally asked and coughed to clear his throat. Harry grimaced.

"He thinks sacrificial magic might have been involved."

Oh.

Draco stared. Huh. Interesting. Okay.

The letter in his hand suddenly felt much, much heavier.

He should probably open it. It could be time sensitive. Maybe it was a warning. A clue for where another horcrux was. Something important... and yet... he tucked it away in his robes. Ether squawked, giving him a light nip on the ear before shooting back up into the sky. Draco watched for a moment and then stood back up, taking a piece of bacon. They were leaving soon, right? He should get ready.

"Are you okay?" Hermione called after him and he waved the words off. He was fine. He was always... always fine. Just fine. Fine, fine, fine. He repeated the word in his mind as he played with the watch around his neck. A feeling of comfort warmed his chest and he turned to see Harry holding the other one with a weak smile. He tried his best to return it.

"I think I know where we need to go at least," Harry said to the others, standing up, "I had a dream last night. Vol - _You-Know-Who,"_ he corrected when Ron pointed a finger threateningly at him, "Knows we destroyed the others. He's heading to Hogwarts. That has to be where the last one is." He explained. Draco frowned. He wished he had known that. He could have had people looking there for months now. Maybe he could find a way to contact someone to keep them from looking... Severus maybe? Ron nodded, downing the last swig of orange juice with relish.

"To Hogwarts it is."

* * *

They really were a pathetic bunch. Apparation was out of the question because apparently Hermione had apparated _all three of them_ to the continent in search for Andromeda. Needless to say that while she had physically recovered, her magic was probably still healing to apparate all four of them any distance. Draco had offered to try, but given the fact he had been tortured for an inordinate amount of time it seemed equally precarious to try. The obvious solution would have been that Draco apparate with Harry and Hermione with Ron, but it was mutually agreed upon it was too risky in their weakened states to attempt to end up in the same place. For all they knew, Hermione might end up at one end of Scotland and Draco in another.

 _Plus_ , they couldn't go directly to Hogwarts without Severus' help and Draco knew for a fact Hogsmeade was under some caterwauling charms so...

"Just - Draco, _please,"_ Hermione huffed as she tried to straighten the... what the Hell did she call it? A _jacket?_

"Muggle clothes are too tight," Draco grumbled, making a face as he shook his arms out. He looked ridiculous. "Why can't we fly?" He asked. Harry shot him an amused look from where he was pulling a shirt over his head.

"Look at that," he said lightly, "The first time he speaks in a full sentence it's to complain."

Draco flipped him off.

"Hey, I'm enjoying it. Keep going." Harry told him sweetly as Draco narrowed his eyes. Hermione ignored them both.

"Because," she said patiently, "Blending in with muggles and using muggle transportation is a good way to keep Death Eaters off our backs-"

"Um," Ron said, holding up a finger as he tried to figure out how that awful piece of cloth was supposed to be worn. Draco hadn't seen it before... which was strange because he _had_ worn muggle clothing before. Often even. It was the law to wear muggle standards of clothing wherever a muggle could see you so this wasn't his first time being forced into uncomfortable trousers or forced to use those _God awful_ metal teeth of death (Harry called them zippers, but Draco would only refer to them as 'unnecessary muggle teeth'). Still, muggles always seemed to throw new things into their fashion every so often that Draco could never figure out, "Wouldn't Death Eaters be more likely to attack muggles given that... you know, they're _Death Eaters?"_

He had a point.

"No," Hermione answered tersely, "Their numbers are hurting thanks to Draco's poisoning and the explosion at the manor," she said. The mention of the manor made Draco's pocket feel heavier now that he was aware of the letter within, "So they aren't going to be focused on muggles when they should be redirecting their efforts towards the war - and hopefully the Elder Wand." She said. Harry nodded.

"When did Theo say he was going to start those rumors with the mirror?"

"I told him to try to hold off until we got the next horcrux. Given that they've reported it on Potterwatch, I'm sure he's already started." She said and then turned to Ron with a squeak of surprise. "Oh, _Ronald_ , that's now how you wear..." She sighed and turned to help him fix the tangled sleeves and clasps Ron had gotten tied up in as Draco considered the idea that Theo had been in Fleur's house... plotting. To overthrow Voldemort.

None of it should be surprising, but he still found himself aghast upon learning it. He hadn't seen Theo there at all, actually. Maybe his mind was too blurry or his meager faculties were focused on his friends' Gringotts adventure... or maybe Theo was purposely left when he heard Draco was up. That stung, but he supposed it was fair all the same.

"Muggle clothes suit you," Harry informed him as he walked over to grin at him. Draco sneered back at him. "I wasn't being sarcastic." He added with a small smirk, "You aren't as bony as you used to be." He noted. Draco's mouth fell open.

" _Me?"_ He gasped, "You were the specky git," he grumbled, thoroughly offended by the whole idea of being 'bony'. Please. "All scrawny with clothes three sizes too big."

"Ah," Harry told him wisely, "But that was because I wore Dudley's clothes and didn't eat. What excuse did you have? I'm sure you were well-fed and your clothes always fit perfect," he said. Draco scowled at him, certain that he was trying to rile him up now, "So not sure why you were so pointy-"

"Pointy?" Draco repeated and shoved him away. "You're a nightmare," he said as he thought back to a younger Harry and how much of a mess _he_ was. Actually, Draco had plenty of material to work with now, "Look at your hair!" He said and then gestured to... well. Harry wore muggle clothes quite nicely when they fit him. Shame.

"And?" Harry prompted, eyes glittering with amusement. Draco looked him up and down.

"I don't want to hurt your feelings," he said and Harry snorted. Draco coughed again. This was the most he had spoken in days. He shouldn’t be surprised it would be Harry who would literally annoy him into conversing again... and by the look on his face, he wasn’t done yet.

"It's okay. Go ahead."

"No."

"No? No, you don't have anything to say?"

"No."

"I know why. It's because you can't find anything to complain about, right?" Harry needled. Draco glowered at him, "Not my eyes? My face? Arms? Legs?" He suggested. Draco was going to stab him. "Aw, guess you're just so taken with all me, huh?" He teased. "I know you like my-"

"Don't you dare finish that sentence!" Ron said as Hermione tried to help him put on his jumper so it was no longer backwards. This didn't end up going well because he immediately went off-balance and brought both him and Hermione tumbling to the floor with a squeak. Draco shook his head at them as they both went dark red, spluttering as they tried to get up. Harry moved to help them, but Draco put a hand on his arm.

"Let them." He said simply when Hermione fell back down on top of Ron.

"Sorry!" She squeaked and Ron blinked a few times - possibly noting how close her face was before letting his eyes drift down towards her lips. Then his wits seemed to snap into place because he somehow went an even darker shade of red and lightly helped her off of them. Wow... Draco looked at Harry in utter exhaustion. How was this _still_ happening? Harry only shook his head in return. Had this poor man been forced to play third-wheel like this the entire time Draco was gone?

"Right," Ron said as if they hadn't just witnessed some sort of weird foreplay, "Um, does this look alright?" He asked and Hermione opened her mouth, "I mean, does it look muggle-ish?" He rectified quickly. By Godric, help them.

"Yes, um, very nice," Hermione said, tugging at her hair, "Purple is a nice color on you."

Draco couldn't help it. The opportunity was right there.

"Harry," he said dryly, turning to his boyfriend, "Red is a nice color on you."

"Oh, why thank you for that nice, romantically charged compliment. From you. The person I am dating." Harry said, completely monotoned. Draco bit back a laugh as Hermione and Ron stared at them, looking completely stunned. Hermione was the first to recover.

"Draco, you also look very nice in blue!" She choked out and then spun around to grab her beaded bag. Ron blinked a few times before giving Harry and Draco scalding looks.

"Stop being little-"

"Ronald, you look so _nice_ in purple," Draco interrupted, "So _pretty_ -" He chuckled and Ron stormed off after Hermione. "They're the worst." He said and Harry gave a slight snort before shaking his head.

"We're being a little mean," he said and Draco let his mouth dropped, "They didn't do that to us before we started dating. Ron was very patient." He pointed out. Draco continued his staring. Well, maybe he _should_ have been mean to them. It would have saved them all so much time. Harry probably read his expression because he laughed before taking his hand to pull him along towards the bus... because yes. They were riding a bus. A muggle bus.

Look, he wasn't eleven anymore. He had developed an appreciation for muggles, yes. That didn't mean he had to enjoy all of their inventions. Was it amazing they made such a machine without magic? Of course! Was that amazing machine also slow and ugly and bumpy enough to make Draco want to vomit on its low-grade interior? Also yes. Not to mention it was red. Why was everything in his life red? He was forced to wear robes, live in a dorm draped in red, befriend red-headed people - the color haunted him.

...that might be a tad on the dramatic side, but his point remained.

The final sting to this entire operation was the seating. On this particular bus there was not a group of four seats together either so Hermione and Ron ended up sitting together on one side while Harry and Draco sat on the other, which made him a tad anxious. He would have preferred it if they were all in his line of sight in case something went wrong, but alas. Muggle buses were terrible.

"Let's play I Spy," Harry announced and Draco frowned, "It's a muggle game. It might calm you down from whatever internal crisis you're having," he added and Draco was just about to deny his internal crisis when Harry cut him off, "I spy with my little eye...something orange," he said and Draco stared, "Now you guess what it is." He added.

"Shouldn't we be talking about the war?"

"Do you want to?" Harry asked. Draco considered. No. No, he didn't - but they still probably _should_ , right? "That's what I thought. Something orange. Go."

Oh, whatever.

"The cat that woman is trying to hide in her bag," Draco said flatly and Harry pouted, "What? It was obvious," he mused, "What else do you got?" He asked, rubbing his throat a bit. He wasn't stupid. He knew this was all a ploy of Harry's to get him talking more. Draco thought that today alone had been a pretty good improvement, but leave it to his overzealous boyfriend to push for more. Harry shrugged, grabbing his hand so he could fiddle with his fingers as the bus shook a bit while making a turn.

"It's your turn to find something and I have to guess."

Draco looked around.

"Um, I see-"

"You have to say ‘I spy with my little eye,’" Harry interrupted, completely serious. There was still a bit of humor in his eyes as Draco stared back at him with an equal amount of stoicism. "Then you describe the thing." He added. Draco rolled his eyes.

"Fine. I spy with my _reasonably-sized_ eyes... something... ridiculously attractive."

"The driver." Harry said immediately. Draco glanced over at the woman picking her nose at the helm and scoffed, "No? Um, the cat in the lady's bag," he decided. Draco shook his head, "Alright, it's me." Draco shook his head again. "How dare - there's a mirror up there, isn't there? Are you talking about yourself?"

"Looks like it's your turn."

"Unbelievable," Harry grumbled. The game lasted another hour before Draco ended up falling asleep on Harry's shoulder. When he woke up again, Harry himself was asleep against the window with their hands still intertwined... as was most of the bus, actually. Night had fallen and most of the passengers were either curled up or had gotten off. Ron appeared to be awake, but was lost to the world as he stared out the window with his fingers carded absently through a sleeping Hermione's hair. Draco shook his head and sat up.

It was time.

Sighing, he reached into his pocket (with his non-Harry-occupied hand) and managed to tug out the worn piece of parchment that had been burning a hole in his pocket all day. Nobody had really pressured him to open it, but he knew the others were anxious about what its contents held as well. Draco just wanted some privacy knowing that... well. The words might not bring good news. Plus, he couldn't be sure who it was even from.

Did he want it to be his mother or father? It seemed awful to choose, but... Draco took a long breath and pushed the thought away before clumsily unfolding with one hand. The ink was lightly smeared, but still readable and in his father's handwriting. He took a deep breath and read.

_Draco,_

_I write this without the assurance or knowledge of whether this letter will reach you in a timely manner - or ever. I suppose I will simply hope that it will fall into your hands when the time is right. There isn't much time for me say all I would like to, so I'll try to brief and blunt about it. Firstly, and most importantly, I would like you to know your mother is safe. You were clever to say you put her under the imperius curse. I told them the same. I managed to convince her to play along in an effort to help you. She has already made up a plan for your escape... you and her are quite similar in your wits. It is something I've always admired in both of you. As of right now, she's convinced Bellatrix to take her to their childhood home where some of your grandparents' more... well, Druella and Cygnus had quite the display of torture devices. I think Bellatrix_ _plans on using your mother as one your future tormentors there. If all goes to plan, they'll move you there and then Narcissa will take you and run._

_She also plans on returning to me. However, I'm afraid I won't be joining you._

_The Lestrange brothers are coming for me soon. I know they've been given orders not to kill me, but I've long decided that matters very little. When you were younger I told you of sacrificial magic. I remember distinctly telling you it was only for desperate fools. After all, if you had money and power then there was little need to put your own magic in such a precarious position. Besides, there were few things in the world that would warrant such unconditional protection._

_I know I haven't been able to truly show it, but I would like you to know that you are worth that unconditional protection to me. I'm not foolish enough to be blind to your decisions, Draco. I know you chose this path for us. For our protection. It shames me to know that. As a parent, it pains me to know that you had to be the better person in this family. I should have turned you away when I could. I should have switched sides when we could. While we may hold different beliefs, the truth is that you should never be on the side where you fear you may not survive._

_So, I will do what I should have done in the beginning. My magic will go to you. I'm afraid this means that if, by chance, I do happen to survive that I will no longer possess the mental faculties to converse with you as I do now, which means there are several things I would like to say to you before I no longer have the chance._

_I'm sorry for when I've failed you. I'm proud of everything you've done. I'm thankful for everything you've learned over the years and for what it has caused me to learn in turn. I love you and your mother both._

_I have the suspicion I will not die a good man. Morals have not been my strong suit for the longest time. However, the knowledge I will not die a good father... I think I will take that beyond my grave. Perhaps some of these words will alleviate some of that. Good luck, Draco. I hope you are able to live the life we could not give you.  
_

_Yours truly,_

_L.A.M._

The world was strangely numb. Slowly, he put down the parchment. He sat there for a moment - unsure of his next move. Was there really anything left for him to feel right now? His life had been so...loud these past few years. There had been so many emotions, events, traumas... He wondered if the ability to process it all had been zapped from him. Forcing down the vile taste rising in his throat, he put the letter back in his pocket.

So. That was how he made it through the torture with his sanity. It didn't explain who had blown up the mansion... though he did have a sneaking suspicion that if Rudolphus and Rabastan pushed his father to insanity they could have just killed him... and if his mother returned to the manor like his father said she would only to find him dead and Draco missing...

An explosion sounded about right to him.

Five. Four. Three. Two. One.

The pain didn't stop. It never stopped when he got to one. He just lied and said it would.

Looking to make sure Harry was still asleep, he rolled up his sleeve. Remus had done a good job healing it, but he could still see the pattern cut in. Various shapes that would look pretty in any other context. His fingers traced over them. Honestly, that hadn't been the worst of it. Not by a long shot. It was just the only part of it that left anything behind. There were no scars in suffocating charms or hearing Andromeda's screams. Then Harry's. Then Hermione's. The Ron's. Over and over and over until he was sure they were right there with him...

And then they were.

Hugging him with whispers of rescues and promises that nothing more would happen. Draco had fallen for it the first time. He had been so desperate to leave he didn't think to question anything. They were there. They were _there._

There to break his bones one at a time. There to rub salt in bleeding wounds. There to regrow body parts after they were cut off. There burn and there to -

Five... Four... Three... Two... One...

Draco tried to pull himself out of it, yanking his sleeve down with trembling fingers.

"You 'kay?" Harry's voice murmured, breaking Draco out of his thoughts. A hand sleepily tapped his knee, "Feel you thinking," he yawned, words practically slurred together.

"I'm fine."

"Liar," Harry grumbled and leaned into his arm, "You're sad. I know these things."

Draco bit back a pained smile. Harry usually talked nonsense when he was half-asleep.

"I am sad," he admitted, "Not in the mood to talk about it though. Go back to sleep." He said and Harry gave a soft sigh before he nodded into Draco's shoulder.

"'kay. Love you."

"Love you too," Draco said, feeling his chest warm slightly before glancing out the window. Maybe he would take another nap... and pray that dreams wouldn't bother him.

* * *

There was good news and bad news when they got off the bus.

The good news? They were close enough to Hogwarts that they could probably fly there in a couple minutes. The bad news? Death Eaters.

Bloody... sodding... Death Eaters.

Hermione was quick at least. She grabbed them and apparated within seconds, which probably wasn't good for her healing magic, but whatever. They landed in a field that... God, he could _see_ the castle. They were so close. If they could just apparate into the grounds they could do it...

"They're going to guess where we're going," Hermione said, frustrated. "Hogwarts is still under our control, right?" She asked, turning to Draco. He frowned.

"As far as I know, it is. The Dark Lord still thinks it's his though and I told everyone to play along so they'll be posting people around because they think they're guarding it," he said slowly. "Maybe there's another muggle place we can stay so we can repel the Death Eaters," he said. He had meant it as a joke, but Hermione's face lit up.

“Draco, that’s brilliant!” Hermione said and before he could ask what was happening, they were apparating again. Draco didn’t even bother to ask anymore. He figured explanations were pretty much dead at this point. He was surprised it took him this long to accept it.

"You need to stop doing that when your magic is healing," he told her instead. Hermione ignored him. Well then. Harry's subtle arrogance seemed to have finally worn off on her. Nothing could apparently break his friends' limits because they had the power of _love_ and _kindness_ on their side. 

“Where are we?” Harry asked, clearly not getting the memo after they had hit the ground. Hermione straightened up, tapping her wand against a lock on a door in front of them. Draco frowned. The place they were at was a very long hall with doors on either side and flickering lightbulbs above them.

“Electricity,” he noted with a nod, “This is a muggle building.” He said and glanced around. Hermione nodded as she pulled them into a room. Draco examined the area curiously. It was a… small… house? No, just a bedroom with house-like things inside. He frowned. This didn’t make any sense. “Is this supposed to be an inn?” He asked, looking around in bafflement.

“Muggles call it a hotel, but yes. My parents and I came here once. It was the closest I could take them to the school,” Hermione said, shrugging off her coat, “This should give us a good twenty minutes while we make a plan,'' she said. Draco nodded. This... _hotel_ had all the muggle items he had been learning about over the years. A television, a microwave, toaster, oven, air conditioner - all of it. He moved around before pausing.

“Um, these aren’t our bags?” He said, gesturing to the mess on the floor. Hermione glanced over.

“No, they belong to whoever is staying here,” she said and Draco raised an eyebrow at her, “Oh, come on. I don’t have time to rent us a room. It’s just twenty minutes and if the muggles come in we can confound them.” She said. Draco lifted his hands in surrender. Whatever. He knelt down, curiously looking at a few items of muggle clothes left in the open bag as Ron started looking for food.

“Try the fridge,” Harry told him and Ron stared back blankly before he brought Ron over to a small box and opened it. “See? It keeps things cold.” He told him, “You put food in there.” 

Ron’s mouth dropped.

“That’s… how the bloody Hell…?” He muttered, momentarily forgetting his quest for food in order to put his hand in and out of the fridge in fascination. Draco chuckled and went back to the clothes to - wait. He frowned, picking up a… well, he had no idea what it was. It was by far the most oddly shaped thing he had ever seen. Almost like an ‘L’ with a curve connecting it together and a small… well, it wasn’t a _button,_ but-

“ _Draco put that down, right now!”_

Draco jumped at the order in Hermione’s voice, almost dropping the mystery item entirely. Harry turned before also freezing - eyes going very wide.

“Why? What is it?”

“Draco, don’t… don’t touch anything,” Harry said, “Just put it down really carefully. That’s a gun.” He told him. Draco blinked. A what? He frowned, turning it around to get a better look.

“He - don’t _point it at yourself!_ Harry. Harry. Harry, take it from him. Take it from him!” Hermione said, voice rising impossibly high. Draco frowned. What was the big deal? It was just a strange muggle thing. He couldn’t imagine it being more dangerous than their wands. 

“I - why me?” Harry muttered and inched closer, not looking too thrilled to be near the thing either as he very carefully pulled it from Draco’s grasp. “Thank you.” He said and then stared down at it for a moment, “What do I do with this? I don’t know anything about guns!” He complained, “Isn’t there supposed to be a safety or something?” He muttered.

“What’s it do?” Ron asked, mouth full of noodles he had grabbed from the fridge. 

“It looks like the blasters from when we watched Star Wars. The ones that shoot out spells.” Draco said wisely. Harry paused in his discomfort to give him a considering look.

“That… is very close. It doesn’t shoot out spells though. Just, um, metal.” 

“Metal?” Ron asked, wrinkling his nose, “Whatever would they need that for?”

“It kills things, usually.” Hermione answered tersely, “They are highly regulated and mostly illegal in England-”

“So you brought us into the room of a bunch of criminals,” Harry said and nodded, “Brilliant.” 

“Wait,” Draco interrupted when Hermione opened her mouth in outrage, “It kills things? Muggles made something with the sole intention of it just...killing?” He frowned and tilted his head, “Surely, it must do other things.” 

“Uh… I mean, you can shoot it for fun,” Harry said as Draco stared back blankly, “But other than that… yeah. You hunt animals with some. I think that’s a different type though-”

“There are _types_ of killing devices? And this isn’t the animal killing one?” He asked and then frowned, “Wait. Does that make it the _human_ killing one?” 

“It’s what muggles use in their wars,” Hermione said and Ron set down his carton of noodles.

“I want to see!” 

“No!” Hermione shouted and tugged at her hair, “Nobody except Harry touches the gun!”

“I don’t really want to be touching the gun-”

“I’m fine with holding it.” Draco said and Hermione slammed her hand against the counter to make them all jump. 

“You three listen to me _right now_ ,” She hissed and Ron took a quick step back, “No. Touching. It. Harry, suck it up and try not to shoot anything. Ronald go sit on that bed. Draco, go with him and I swear to God if either of you touch another thing in this room I will hex you both so badly that it will be _my_ name you’re too afraid to say. Is that understood?” 

....Draco looked at her. Ron had already practically dove onto the bed as Harry begrudgingly held the gun with a grimace of distaste. Hermione narrowed her eyes. Slowly, Draco started moving towards the bed.

Not because he was scared of her or anything. She just seemed stressed and Draco wanted to be accommodating. 

“It doesn’t even look that scary,” Ron muttered. Draco nodded in agreement. It really didn’t. “How would that even work?”

“A knife must come out of it,” Draco said, though he failed to see how a knife popping out of the hole would be much different than just a normal knife. That was really the only way he could think of metal shooting out of it though. “I don’t remember learning about it muggle studies…” he mused. Ron opened his mouth to respond, but it was at that moment a knock sounded. 

They all froze.

"...occupied!" Ron called and another knock followed, this time more insistent. Draco warily backed up a bit, breath quickening. Harry grabbed his forearm so that his fingers dug into his skin slightly as he pulled him towards him. They all watched the door for a moment before there was a muffled whisper and a click. Hermione jerked out her wand as Ron also stood up to bring out his own. Harry, for his part, raised the gun at the door in warning.

"I wouldn't come in here," Harry said as Draco was momentarily distracted by his interest. He kind of hoped the person came in so he could see how this gun worked. Harry's wand was on the hotel bed next to him. Draco leaned over to grab it so he could give it to him if the muggle weapon turned out to be a bust. "Don't-" Harry began, but was silenced by the door slamming open to reveal a Death Eater mask entering. Hermione quickly casted a silencing charm around the room as Ron stepped forward. Harry, however, pointed the gun at him. A loud bang sounded against the room - sort of like a firecracker. Draco was stunned by the volume as he reared back, noticing the Death Eater also too shocked to move. 

“Bloody - _what was that?!”_ A voice shrieked. Draco paused, lowering his own wand slightly.

“Severus?”

“I came… to…” Severus said and tore off his mask, “And you… _did you just shoot me?!”_

“The gun didn’t even kill him,” Ron said, still looking at the gun with a bit of disappointment, “It just made a loud noise and - _holy mother of Merlin there’s a hole in you!”_ He shrieked, pointing a where blood was rapidly blossoming on Severus’ arm. Draco jumped. Oh. He walked over to cast a quick bleeding charm. For a moment he froze, the blood suddenly pulling him back to... to...

Blood and burning and more blood and the smell of flesh cooking and his hand _hurt_ and blood and blood and blood and-

Five. Four. Three. Two. One.

Draco flicked his wand and the blood disappeared as he swallowed down vomit suddenly rising up his throat. He turned to find Hermione staring at him and offered her a weak smile. She pursed her lips and walked over to lightly put a hand on his arm, helping clean the wound herself.

“What did it do to him?” Draco asked as Severus seemed to register the pain, gasping suddenly. 

“It, uh, put a piece of metal through him.” Harry winced, “Sorry.” 

“That is the most amazing thing I’ve ever heard,” Ron said and tried to grab the gun, “How did it do that?” He asked and then backed off when Hermione spun around, “Nevermind. Sorry.” He said as Severus continued cursing under his breath. Draco wasn’t really sure how… he glanced at the other side of Severus’ arm.

“I think the metal is still inside him,” he said, tilting his head, “I don’t see where it would have left his body.”

“Why… do you have… a gun?” Severus gritted out. Draco simply pointed to the bag of muggle items before deciding it was best to summon the thing out of him. However, the problem was that… well, he had no idea what the thing was _called._ He couldn’t just accio metal. That might just bring a number of things to him. 

“Hermione,” he asked, handing her a numbing potion to put over the wound, “What’s the metal from a gun called?” He asked, hoping to God it had a name. If not… well. That would be a huge problem.

“Oh-” Hermione said and shifted her grip on Severus, “Let me just… _accio bullet!”_

Bullet? What kind of name was that? It sounded like a smaller bull. He shook his head. Even after all these years… muggles still confused him. Severus continued cursing as Draco and Hermione worked in tandem to get him healed up relatively quickly. In the end, he shoved them both off before grabbing Draco's arm and roughly shaking him.

" _What happened?"_ He demanded and it occurred to Draco that... huh. Yeah, that man had no idea if Draco was alive or dead for probably several weeks now, "You had one job, Draco!"

"I most certainly did not have just one job," he objected, "I had many jobs and I only messed up on one," he grumbled, detaching Severus' hand from him. "It's nice to see you - _Harriet!"_ He gasped when his snake appeared from Severus' sleeve. "Oh, I've missed you so much!" He told her, cooing as the snake quickly abandoned his godfather to make her way up Draco's arm. She stared at him for a moment - eyes blinking rapidly before lightly bopping his nose with her own. "I'm sorry I haven't been around."

"...you're apologizing to the snake?" Severus asked him dryly. Oh. Right.

"Sorry," he added to him and Severus rolled his eyes. "What are you doing here?" He asked and Severus rubbed the arm he had gotten shot in absently before glancing over his shoulder at the door. Silently, he gestured them all to sit before opening his cloak to bring out an old book.

"This portkey will get you into Hogwarts," he said calmly and when Ron reached for it, slapped his hand away, "But we must talk first. I know they're searching for you out there, but I... have distressing news," he told them and Draco frowned as Harry sat down next to him. "Nott told me your plan. It is likely to work, but you must destroy the horcruxes quickly. I already have some students looking. Dumbledore's portrait told me it would be something of Ravenclaw's?" He asked and they all nodded.

"I think the snake is one too. I've been having dreams..." Harry trailed off, possibly under the weight of Severus' look at him. Draco frowned. Why was he looking at him like that? "So, we're close. There are just two." He said. Severus didn't respond at first.

"There were seven." He finally said. Hermione opened her mouth before giving an exhausted sigh.

"Seven horcruxes? Dumbledore said there were only six. He's made another?" She asked, pinching the bridge of her nose. Severus shook his head.

"He... is unaware there is a seventh horcrux," he explained slowly, which didn't make sense at all, "I was told to wait to tell you, but I believe now is a better time-" He started, but was cut off by the door slamming open once again. Everyone jumped up. This time, it wasn't Death Eaters who greeted them, but muggles wearing strange, black masks. Severus spun around, pulling out his wand as the three muggles brought out weapons of their own with with surprising speed.

"You think you can hurt us with that stick?" One of them said, voice mocking and Severus rolled his eyes, looking seconds from casting a stunning spell when another one of the muggles spoke up from the back.

"Wait - are you a Death Eater?" It asked and Draco paused. Hey. He knew that voice. Draco shoved his way to where Severus stood, looking completely taken off-guard at having been identified as Draco peered towards the man who had just spoken.

"Jenkins?"

"...holy shit. No fucking way." One of the intruders said and pulled off the mask, _"Draco?"_ He demanded. Ron made a choking noise as Draco brightened. He _did_ escape after all! How wonderful. "Hey, lower your shit. Gentleman, this was the mumbo jumbo child I told you about!" He said brightly and Draco waved, "I told you he was real." He added to them lowly.

"Wait, what's happening?" Harry asked and turned to Draco, "You know them?"

"Are you the boyfriend?" Jenkins asked and Harry's mouth fell open, "Yeah, he talked a lot about you. Said you had a pretty smile."

"I didn't use the word pretty!" Draco told him for probably the hundredth time. Jenkins shrugged as Harry raised an eyebrow, "But, yes. He is the boyfriend. This is Jenkins by the way. He was very helpful in finding me good muggles to turn over to You-Know-Who-"

"Hold it," One of Jenkins companions said, putting a machete over his shoulder, "So you're the kid who took down the sex trafficking then?" He asked and Draco nodded, "Huh. Good job. And the organ trafficking?"

"I didn't completely dismantle it because I got kidnapped, but I managed to take down a lot of the ring leaders." Draco shrugged as Ron held up his hands.

"You - I don't want to know. I don't want to know why you were off dismantling illegal crime rings with some random, criminal muggle," he decided, "Though, if we survive this, you are no longer allowed to do anything on your own ever again." He said, shaking his head, "Blimey. Do you hear this? He made a big deal to go off and be a Death Eater and then he fucks off doing muggle crime stuff. Do you hear him?" He asked Hermione who, for once, seemed at loss for words.

"Ah, you must be a Weasley." Jenkins said knowledgeably and Ron threw his hands up.

"What the Hell, Draco?"

* * *

In the end, Jenkins ended up being... well. Somewhat endearing and infuriating at once. Draco had insisted Severus give him and Jenkins' friends an aura potion so they could see all the magic around them. In theory, it would help them escape without running into any magical traps. Jenkins, in turn, did not wish to escape, but instead had decided that he was going to join in the fighting.

"You don't have a wand."

"I have a gun," Jenkins said wisely and Ron pointed at him.

"He does and it looks like they work very well."

"So?" Hermione said, throwing up her arms, "Bullets are easily deflected with magic and we just saw how easy it was to heal a bullet wound!" She said and then turned to Draco, "You were never harmed by guns and you apparently took down illegal organ trafficking schemes!" She said. Draco frowned.

"Before today I had never seen a gun," he told her and Hermione's mouth dropped, "You... you said earlier that they're not allowed to have guns here. Why would I have seen them?" He asked, looking at Jenkins for an explanation. The man held up a hand.

"Kid, if they're running illegal organ trafficking schemes then they don't care about breaking the rules. I'm a little surprised nobody shot at you though. I guess your little mumbo jumbo thing scared them so badly that nobody thought to shoot." He mused. Harry turned to Jenkins, looking vaguely annoyed that he had sent Draco places where he could be shot, but didn't get a chance to comment on it, "Look, none of that matters because it seems to me that I can just walk outside and shoot the guy with no nose and see what happens. If he dies then brilliant and if he doesn't then I'll shoot again while you lot use your magic stuff to kill him." He shrugged and Jenkins' two friends murmured in agreement.

Severus took a long breath.

"We don't have time for this," he whispered and grabbed the book, "We need to get back to the school. At some point, we need to have a conversation." He added with a gesture to Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Draco. They all nodded in unison. "You three are not invited." He added to the muggles. Jenkins shrugged.

"Look, we can either grab the book with you or just walk to the weird looking castle."

"Why do you want so badly to be involved in this?" Hermione asked and Jenkins frowned at her - looking legitimately offended by the question.

"Draco used to bring me pudding," he said simply and shook his head, "Plus, if my kids were involved in some weird war I would want people to help them out no matter what. Magic or not. So... yeah, bring it on." He said simply and shouldered up next to them. Everyone turned to Draco.

"...honestly, I think it easier to protect them in the castle rather than leaving them to shoot people here." He reasoned and Jenkins gave a nod of agreement before patting Draco's arm in approval. Severus looked like he might argue, but after several seconds of staring over everyone, only shook his head and grabbed the book wordlessly. A sharp jerk followed as he felt the air around the shift - spinning as a sharp jab came behind his navel and they zipped away. When they landed again, Draco was a little startled to find himself in a room full of children.

"What the Hell?" He asked as soon as he looked around, "Severus!" He growled, "Why are they here? I worked hard to get them out of here and-"

"They aren't real," Severus cut him off curtly and waved his hand through one of the children. Immediately the boy turned gold at the touch. "They're illusions for when other Death Eaters come." He said and snapped his fingers so they all disappeared. Oh. Draco felt the anger that had risen in his chest deflate once again. "Not that we need them now," he added and nodded towards the door. What did that mean? Draco looked over at the others who merely shrugged before walking out the door.

He was greeted with chaos.

Crowds of people flitted about the castle speaking in possibly a dozen different languages in a variety of different style robes. Draco could make out Durmstrang and Beauxbatons uniforms among the crowd alongside what he assumed were the uniforms of other schools as well. Neville and Luna stood in front of the group alongside Zoe who was giving orders and calmly answering questions as professors sorted various fifth years in different directions. Draco stared.

"He did it," Harry's voice said with a bit of awe. Draco turned to him, "Theo. He said he was going to get all the other countries you were talking to here, but I wasn't... I wasn't sure if he could do it," he admitted. Huh. Draco turned back as Ginny stomped beside Neville, raising her wand so a sharp siren sounded, silencing everyone within range.

"We barricaded the castle, but Death Eaters are right outside guarding it. It won’t be long before they realize they can’t get inside. Ravenclaws," she called, looking around, "Have you found that crown thing?"

"Diadem," Cho Chang answered, crossing her arms over his chest, "And no. We think the Gray Lady might know something, but nobody can get her talk-"

"I can," a new voice answered as one woman stood, holding up a hand. "I'm Sabelia," she added. McGonagall turned to her.

"The professor at Castelobruxo?" She asked and the woman nodded, "I see. It's true what they say then?" She asked and Ginny cleared her throat, holding up her hands in a silent demand for an explanation. Draco had no idea why this woman was renowned by first name alone... though there was strangeness about her. He couldn't pin exactly what is was though. Sabelia smirked.

"My students can assure you of my talents," she said and turned to look at Ginny, "I am a malnatus," she added to her. Zoe brightened a bit as she peered down at her, "My mother was forced to drink veritserum while carrying me and now it is... very easy for me to persuade the truth from others. I can promise I will do my job well." She told everyone with a nod, "Could you, perhaps, show me where this Lady of Gray is?" She asked, turning to someone Draco couldn't quite make out. Before he could get closer, Neville's eyes met his.

"Draco?" He asked and then his eyes widened, "Harry." He added and then the room went completely silent at the name alone. Draco grimaced, noting how the room seemed to all latch onto Harry with low whispers and shocked gazes. Harry's face remained blank as he looked them all back with equal curiosity before stepping forward.

"Harry Potter?" Someone asked and Harry looked down. He nodded warily.

"Harry Potter-"

"-Potter is here."

"Can't believe he's alive-"

"-saw him before. Harry bloody Potter!"

The group continued to murmur. Harry shifted a bit in discomfort.

"Are you here to kill Voldemort?" Someone asked. Draco fought - very hard - not to roll his eyes. Obviously. What the Hell else would he be here to do? Kill Father Christmas? Harry nodded and the whispers rose. Before he could give a vocal response, someone had stepped forward and placed their wand at his feet. Draco's eyes widened. A few people murmured. Harry, of course, looked confused.

"Don't get cocky, Potter." Blaise said, emerging from the crowd to also put his wand down. Then came another. And another. People were lining up to place their wands down so that Harry had a small pile at his feet. Draco inwardly groaned. Oh, this would be a _bitch_ to get his wand back later. Nevertheless, he joined the crowd before also setting his wand down. Harry grabbed him as he stood back up.

"What's happening?" He asked. Draco moved a little closer to whisper in his ear.

"Pureblood custom," he said softly, "Putting your wand at someone's feet is highest form of respect you can give someone."

Harry looked truly alarmed by this as the pile of wands at his feet seemed to grow and grow. Ron and Hermione joined as well (though, personally, Draco would be later initiating a movement to put every wand in the world at Hermione's feet because she was the reason they had survived past the age of eleven, quite frankly). Draco tried his best not to laugh when Sirius appeared dramatically to place his wand down with loud proclamations that Harry was, in fact, his godson and thus everyone's loyalty also belonged to him by extension.

"Dora?" A voice asked and Draco watched in amusement as Remus went to put down his wand only to notice Dora also about to put down hers. She grinned at him. "What are you - Harry, it's great to see you - why are you here? Stop - _Nymphadora,"_ he said when she only winked at her husband and got up. When Draco met her eyes she gave a stern look and pointed at him with a silent promise to deal with him later, which Draco didn't think was necessary.

Most hilariously though... was Severus.

Draco watched as he narrowed his eyes at Harry, stubbornly keeping his wand in hand despite the dozens of wizards and witches who were watching him with expectant eyes. There was no way he was going to do it. No way. Severus may not be as bitter and angry as he once was, but there was no way he had come _that_ far. Sure enough, when Severus finally did take out his wand, he didn't place it at Harry's feet.

"Don't do it." Draco whispered and Severus scowled at him before dropping the wand deliberating at Draco's feet, "If we have everyone moving their wands in front of me next then I'm going to be very annoyed." Draco informed him as the room went abuzz. People were watching him curiously as his name floated around the room. Harry shrugged and then placed his wand next to Severus'.

This was too dramatic even for Draco. Neville smiled before also walking over.

"I heard about the manor." He said softly and dropped his wand in front of Draco. A few others did the same as Draco stood awkwardly, cursing Severus for starting this new trend. The irritation dwindled when a new face appeared in the crowd.

"So," Theo said as he stepped in front of Draco, "You're still alive then."

Draco scoffed.

"I don't know if you're aware," he said rubbing the side of his arm, "But there are quite a few people looking for you." He said and looked Theo over. "I heard this was all your doing." He said, gesturing vaguely around them. Theo scoffed.

"That's being generous."

"Hm," Draco mused, turning to face him fully and cross his arms, "I thought you might have turned." He admitted, watching Theo carefully.

"Voldemort killed my brother," Theo said simply, "I knew that from the beginning. You were just naive enough to let it happen. That doesn't mean I would turn against you." He told him. The words were curt, but Draco appreciated the honesty of them. He nodded, looking at the ground before meeting his eyes again.

"I'm not naive anymore."

"Yeah," Theo told him, "Neither am I."

Draco sighed.

"Do you think we'll ever be friends again?" He asked and Theo stopped twirling his wand to shoot Draco a legitimately surprised look, "I know things ended badly, but..." He was silenced by Theo kneeling down and placing his wand at Draco's feet. He got up and put a hand on his shoulder.

"You're a good person, Draco," he said and gave a weak smile, "And I know I haven't been... my kindest, recently, but... you've always been my friend." He said gently, stepping away. Draco smiled weakly. "And I do mean that even if part of the reason I'm vocalizing it is because your boyfriend would jinx me if I said anything else." He added. Draco turned to Harry to see him gave a bright wave.

"Sorry about him," Draco murmured and Theo scoffed, "Thanks, Theo." He added and the Slytherin gave a small salute before walking back over to Pansy and Blaise. Harry cleared his throat, silencing the room as he looked them all over warily. Draco gave him a small nod.

"Voldemort will be coming here soon. His Death Eaters are realizing they aren't able to get into the castle. We need to find Ravenclaw's diadem as soon as possible. Once it is brought to me I'll destroy it. Then, it is important to prioritize the snake. Take out whatever Death Eaters you can, but we can't kill Voldemort without the snake being gone." He explained. Draco frowned as Harry continued speaking to the group with instructions on how they were going to do this. Severus looked... uncomfortable. Draco was going to need pull him aside to figure out what was going on with him and this seventh horcrux nonsense. If he knew where it was then it shouldn't be a problem, right?

His thoughts were jolted when a roar came over the crowd. Everyone clapped and cheered as Harry smiled weakly back at them.

"Harry," Draco said lowly, pulling him to the side, "We should talk about what happens after we kill the snake." He said, glancing over his shoulder. "Look, you're the one destined to kill the Dark Lord. I... know how you feel about unforgivable curses. You don't want to bring yourself to their level, but... I do think you might need the killing curse to kill someone." He said holding up both hands. Harry crossed his arms over his chest.

“I’ve used the killing curse,” he said and Draco raised a disbelieving brow, “In the manor. There was a Death Eater. I could have stunned him, but I just... I killed him. Didn’t even think about it.” He explained, looking very... matter-of-fact about the whole thing. Draco frowned. He couldn't think of anything less Harry-like. Sure, Harry threatened to kill people occasionally (Sirius during their third year for example), but he never actually _did_ it.

“Why?” Draco asked, wondering what on Earth this Death Eater had done to incur such a wrath. Harry didn't even hesitate with his answer.

“Because he was between me and you.”

Oh, this man was going to kill him. No killing curse necessary. How could he just _say_ things like that and expect Draco not to have an internal crisis? What was wrong with him? Fuck. He was so in love and now was _not_ the time. Before he could respond, Severus materialized with Ron and Hermione to effectively ruin the moment.

"We still need to talk." Severus informed them all flatly.

"Right," Draco said, shaking his head and gesture them to walk together down a hallway to get away from the crown, "I should also help organize some of this. When should we-"

_"Draco Lucius Malfoy-"_

Ah. So, he was going to die today then. Draco stopped walking to look at the others for help, but they all unanimously shook their heads at them (Severus included, damn him).

"Come on," he whispered, "I was _tortured!"_ He tried. Ron considered and then held up his hands.

"Sorry, mate." He said and patted the side of his arm, "You had a nice go of it though. We'll have talk later if you live."

"I - Hermione? Harry?" He asked as Hermione gave an apologetic smile before kissing his cheek and then _abandoning_ him. Harry seemed to be the only one considering some sort of helpful retaliation only to grab his hand with a sigh. "You're not allowed to leave me." Draco warned him.

"I need to find that horcrux."

" _Harry-"_

"There are things even I can't save you from," Harry informed him wryly and gave an apologetic kiss before leaving (as if that was any sort of consolation at all). Severus rolled his eyes before pausing with that strange look flickering on his face. Draco was about to try again to enlist his help, but he had already turned away to go after Harry, which was a little concerning. Normally, he might try to investigate that, but he had much bigger problems at the moment.

"Are you going to continue ignoring me?"

Ron did had a point. He had a nice go of it. Maybe his death would be a peaceful one.

"Hi, Andromeda," he finally said turning to face his aunt, "I, um, heard you became a grandmother." He smiled weakly. Andromeda did not smile back, "I kind of thought you would be with Edward Jr. and Dora," he tried. No response. "Alright, let's hear it." He relented and Andromeda took a few more steps towards him to put a hand on either side of his cheek. The gesture seemed affectionate enough, but there was still the small possibility she might just snap his neck.

"Ted told me what happened," she said and Draco bit his lip, "He said you had a plan to get out safely. Did something go wrong?" She asked. Draco winced as he looked down, "Did you actually have a plan?"

"...no." He admitted and Andromeda let go of him to stare with narrowed eyes, "Andromeda, I couldn't just let him-" He started, but fell silent when she raised her hand. She didn't speak though, which made the whole thing worse. Draco cleared his throat and tried again. "If it had been you-"

"Don't you dare."

"Sorry," Draco said quickly and sighed, "I don't want to play the guilt card, but I do think Bellatrix's anger helped me learn my lesson." He suggested. At that, Andromeda's ire seemed to melt away and she pulled him into a tight hug. Draco hugged her back, feeling any residual anxiety from the past few days automatically leave him as he clutched at the sleeves of her dress with a deep breath. "I didn't mean to worry you." He whispered.

"The only way I will forgive you is if you promise free babysitting for the rest of your life." She whispered back. Draco wrinkled his nose.

"...are we sure that's the only way?"

"Yes," Andromeda said, still not letting go, "And that baby is _loud_ , Draco-"

"Are you two really sitting here talking crap about my son right now?" Dora's voice asked. Draco let go to give a small smile.

"Hey, there. How's motherhood treating you?" He asked and then frowned, "Also, what the Hell are you doing here? What the Hell are _you_ doing here?" He asked Andromeda. "You have a baby and you... also have a baby." He said, gesturing to Dora to prove his point. Andromeda snorted.

"Remus is here," Dora explained, wringing her hands together. Andromeda sighed.

"You and Nymphadora are here." She said and Draco bit his lip. There was a very good chance he might get taken down a few notches if he suggested either of them leave, but he also didn't really like the idea of them someplace they _knew_ would be a bloodbath. Andromeda might have read his mind because she was already shaking her head. "If my kids are both here then I'm here. Ted will take care of Teddy." She said and then pointed a finger, "You're lucky it's me and not him who came. I should warn you that the next time he sees you might involve a lot of yelling."

"He knows?" Draco asked weakly. He had hoped that his disappearance might not have reached everyone yet. He assumed Andromeda knew because Andromeda knew everything. Draco thought he might have a chance with Ted. Apparently not. She nodded morosely. "But I saved his life!"

Andromeda laughed.

"Oh, darling," she said and patted his cheek, "Be sure to call me over when you say that to his face." She said and then paused, regarding him warily, "I suppose that means I should say it..." She added and Draco raised an eyebrow, "I do not approve of what you did," she added tersely.

"...but?"

Andromeda glared.

"But I love my husband and am happy he's alive. Thank you." She said quietly. Draco smiled. "But never again! Do understand me?"

"I understand," he promised and Andromeda nodded, letting her hand fall from his arm.

"Good. After all of this is said and done then we'll have more words on that. Right now I need to find Sirius," she grumbled and marched off, turning right at the end of the hallway. Draco went to turn back to Dora only to notice a new face had joined them.

"Remus," he greeted, interrupting whatever lovely moment he was having with his wife. Remus smiled up at him, squeezing Dora's hand as he walked over to hug Draco. "Yeah, I'm alive. Everyone is very pleased." He said into his shoulder and squeezed his arm. "Congrats on the baby. I heard that I am godfather-in-law." He said and Remus tilted his head.

"That would mean you and Harry are married."

"Didn't you hear? We eloped on the way over -" He began as Dora gasped, "I'm _kidding_. Jeez." Draco snorted when they both looked very convinced that this was something that had happened. Quite frankly, it didn't sound terrible. Draco may have planned for a rich, lavish wedding all his childhood, but the idea of just being unbothered and married sounded nice... He shook his head. Now wasn't the time for fantasies.

"I'm glad you're okay, Draco. You gave us all quite a scare."

"Well," Draco said solemnly, "I did go out with a bang. Told the Dark Lord to go fuck himself and all that." He mused. Remus and Dora laughed. "Oh... um, that one wasn't a joke." He rectified. The humor fell away from Remus' face instantly.

"You _what?"_

"That. Is. My. Baby. Cousin!" Dora said with a clap of her hands, "Horribly stupid and I don't recommend that, but since you're here and alive and okay... I will admit that is brilliant." She told him solemnly. "Also, don't tell my mom that happened." Draco nodded solemnly. He did not plan on that in the least. "Alright," she said, "I'm going to help Sabelia with the diadem search." She said kissing Remus' cheek.

"Who?"

"Potions professor from Brazil. Very pretty. Her voice lures you to tell the truth. As an auror I want to put her in my pocket and keep her forever." Dora said brightly and gave Draco one last smile before dashing off towards the end of the hall making a left at the end towards the West end of the castle. Draco smiled fondly after her before going back to the window to see where Theo had placed the Mirror of Erised out in the courtyard. Dozens were casting spells around it as Hermione walked around giving various orders for preparations. From behind him, Remus moved.

Draco didn't say a word. He shouldn't. It wasn't his business. And yet...

"It's funny," he said, still facing the window. He felt Remus pause behind him, "I would have thought you came for Dora, but you didn't even know she was here," he explained and then looked down at the courtyard below the castle, using a finger to tap at the bottom of the window beneath him. "So why did you?"

"What's that mean?" Remus asked, amused. There was still a note of trepidation in there. "This is my war too. I want my son to grow up free."

Draco turned around to look at him.

"You're going to the right," he said, nodding at the direction Remus had been heading before Draco's voice stopped him in his tracks. Remus gave a questioning look, "Dora went left." He added and took a step towards him, "Sirius... is to the right though." He pointed out. Immediately something changed. It was subtle, but Draco still saw in the smallest of movements - a tense look or maybe a quick intake of air.

"What are you trying to say, Draco?" He asked, voice tight. Draco smiled back weakly.

"I know you love my cousin and I know she loves you back."

"Good. We're married."

"Yeah," Draco said putting his hands in his pockets, "People tend to do things like that when they're scared." He mused. Remus' eyes narrowed. "Look, I don't..." He looked down, "Do you remember my boggart in third year?" He asked, chuckling lowly. Remus looked him over for a moment before giving a small nod.

"It was yourself," he said quietly, "And all the different things you could be. Do you think it's changed?"

"Probably," Draco said, "I haven't had to deal with too many boggarts recently to be sure. I've always been someone who... plans for the future. Sometimes even when there might not even be a future for me." He chuckled, "You know, I've finished most of my healer requirements even though there is every chance I'm going to die today or tomorrow?" He asked, rubbing the back of his neck.

"It's good," Remus said, wariness momentarily pausing to give him a warm smile, "To think of a future means you have hope to have everything you might want in it." He told him. Draco nodded.

"What would yours be? If, you know, you live beyond the next twenty-four hours?" He asked. There was a long pause.

"Draco..." He said softly, "Things are more complicated than the little things you've picked up on," he said and Draco snorted. Right. Everything in life seemed to be that way. "I'm not making excuses - and I like simple things!" He added, "That's what I have with Dora. A wife - who I _love_ \- and a son I care about and a family and a home."

"Versus?"

"Versus someone who I would have to look at everyday and know that I _believed_ was guilty for twelve years. To know I did absolutely nothing to help during that time. Relationships like that can't be repaired-"

"Tell him that," Draco said and Remus' jaw tightened, "I just want all of you to be happy... and hey. Right now you might be. I'm just wondering how long that's going to last if we all survive this. Because he won't be going anywhere and that seems like something uncomfortable to have hanging over you." He noted. Remus face darkened.

"I would _never_ -"

"I'm sure you wouldn't," he said and then clapped Remus' arm as he passed by, "But you married an auror, Remus. Don't think she won't notice either way." He said and when he made his way towards the door felt a hand grip at his arm. He looked back.

"You have no idea how much I love her," he said quietly. Draco looked at him for a second.

"I believe you," he said simply and gently pulled his hand off of him to walk down to the courtyard, "But you were still going to go right."

* * *

Jenkins was having the goddamn time of his life alongside his muggle comrades. Not too many people questioned what they were doing there, but it was a little stressful for Draco to figure out a way to include them without condemning them to death. In the end, he found his answer with a bunch of Americans.

"Draco Malfoy?" One woman asked, holding out her hand, "Hi. I'm Andrea Hanson," she greeted and Draco raised an eyebrow.

"The president herself?" He asked and glanced around, "I didn't expect you to be here." He said, crossing his arms over his chest. The woman didn't answer, instead giving a calculating stare. "Is there anything I can do for you?" He asked.

"I was going to ask you the same thing."

"Um, well, try not to die and take down a bunch of Death Eaters," he shrugged. Andrea snorted. He opened his mouth to say more, but was cut off by a man behind her in the most ridiculous hat Draco had ever seen. "Who is that?" He asked her and Andrea turned.

"Trevor?" She asked. Oh, God. Of _course_ his name was Trevor. "He's our representative from Alabama." She shrugged and Draco nodded. He had no idea where the Hell Alabama was, but this Trevor character looked perfect for his Jenkins problem.

"Excuse me," he told Andrea and pushed past to where the man was fiddling with a pile of weapons, "Hi. Draco Malfoy. Do you need a hand with that?" He asked, nodding to his bleeding leg. Trevor barely looked up from his work.

"You know how to heal wounds?" He asked and snapped something onto what Draco was assuming still qualified as a gun. He hummed.

"Um," Draco said, watching him fiddle with the gun in interest, "Yeah, I'm going to be a healer." He said, shaking his head. The man stopped to look at up at him.

"Ah, you're a pukwudgie then?" He asked and Draco leaned back a little.

"Excuse me?" He asked, "I am no such thing!" He said, mind reeling. What the Hell was a pukwudgie? The man frowned at him before realization seemed to hit and he snorted a bit.

"Right. You brits don't have the same houses we do," he mused. Draco tilted his head. Dear God. Did Americans have a worse education system then even Hogwarts? If they were going around calling themselves pukwudgies then maybe he should have let them stay over on their side of the pond. "That's where most of our healers go." The man told him, "And my leg is fine, thank you."

"You... are sorted based on...? Nevermind. I wanted to ask you about the guns." He said, nodding to the bag on the ground by him. The man shrugged. "Are those magical guns by chance? Not the ones that spew out metal bullets?" He said and the man frowned at him, "Will they work on wizards?" He clarified.

"Ha! Will they work on wizards," the man chuckled and dumped the bag out so the guns clattered on the floor, "I crafted these myself! Well, my father did those... and my grandfather did some at the bottom, but not the point. I fill the suckers with these babies," he said, holding up a small ball, "And depending on which one I use will hurt worse than any curse you can think of. Check it out. This one is filled with wolfsbane, which is obviously good for werewolf hunting. This one is with unicorn blood - have to get stuff under the table if you know what I mean - and these are filled stunning curses trapped inside. If one of these hits you it will knock your ass right out." He continued. There were several other different colored balls, but Draco didn't ask about those ones.

"Huh," he said instead, "By chance... do you need... all of these guns?" He asked. Trevor turned to him, raising a disbelieving eyebrow. Draco smiled back.

"Have you ever shot a damn thing in your life?"

"I saw my friend accidentally shoot my godfather once," Draco shrugged. The man considered.

"Good enough for me. Take what you need."

"Brilliant! Thanks - HEY JENKINS!" Draco called, "I GOT MAGIC GUNS FOR YOU TO KILL DEATH EATERS WITH!" He said and then turned back to the man, "My friend Jenkins is a muggle so he doesn't have a wand, but wants to help. Is it okay if you show him these gun things? He already knows how to shoot a muggle one." He added.

"A... what? What is this man? What the Hell are you?" He asked as Jenkins appeared, eying the guns with interest. "Who the Hell do you think you're mugging?"

"Oh," Draco said, "Sorry. I learned about that. He's a no-maj," he clarified and the man's face relaxed as he gave a thumbs up before stepping aside to let Jenkins and his friend take their pickings of guns.

* * *

When Draco (finally) found Harry again he was alone and staring out towards where there were shouts and yells.

"The Death Eaters have realized they can't come inside," Harry said and fixed him with wry smile, "So, I guess that means the real fight starts now," he said. Draco nodded and walked next to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. There was something... off about him. It made him nervous. This was him, right? Yes. Yes, it was. He couldn't start thinking like that. His skin prickled with wariness. He tried his best not to let it show. Harry's face whenever Draco flinched away from him was not one he wanted to get accustomed with.

"Harry?" He tried and when he didn't get a respond, pulled at his sleeve so he could look at him, "What are you thinking?" He asked and then looked over his shoulder, "Was it something Severus said to you?" He asked, thinking of when Severus followed Harry after the others parted. Harry's fingers twitched. "For the love of - I'm sorry. He really has gotten better, but I guess he can still be a prick with you-"

"No," Harry interrupted, "No. He didn't... He didn't say anything nasty," he said and Draco tilted his head, "I just realized something is all."

"Realized what?"

At first, it didn't look like Harry was going to answer. That he was just going to keep looking at Draco as he intertwined their hands.

"I don't want to die," he said suddenly and Draco reeled back. _What?_ He was so shocked by the declaration that he couldn't even think of a response at first, "I have things I want to do... with you." He added and shook his head, "It isn't fair. I haven't... I thought after all of this that we could have some normal time together." He said sounding bitter. Draco shook his head.

"What are you saying? Harry, you're not going to _die_. Have you lost your mind?" He asked with half a mind to start throwing out diagnosis charms. Harry gave a tight smile. "We have the upper hand here. We're going to kill this. The horcruxes are almost gone and we vastly outnumber the Death Eaters, I'm sure. Then we're done.." He said and Harry opened his mouth. "We're so close. Then we can... go have a normal ten years where nobody even bothers us. We can live among muggles or something. I know how to work a toaster now. I can do it." He promised and Harry's face softened.

"Oh yeah?"

"Granted, I do still burn the bread, but I'm sure with more practice I can nail it." He grinned and Harry chuckled and before squeezing his hand tightly. "It's going to be _fine_. I promise." He said and leaned in to kiss him, "The last thing you should be worrying about is _dying_. Pretty sure you couldn't die even if you wanted to." He mused and then grinned at him, "Besides, I'll protect you."

Harry laughed.

"Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of," he murmured and then tugged Draco a bit closer before he could ask what that comment meant, "I need to thank you."

What the Hell?

"Harry, this is getting worrying."

"Just... give me a second," he said and Draco raised an eyebrow. His mind was spinning with trying to figure out what he was missing. Why was Harry so worried? Usually he thrived in this sort of environment. Not war, but... you know. Getting people's spirits up and stuff. He was a natural leader even if he claimed he didn't like it. Draco didn't understand what was happening. "I have stuff to tell you."

"Tell me later."

"Draco," Harry managed and then looked up at the ceiling, "Look, I know you don't like the gross, lovey stuff even though I know you're a total romantic-" he began and Draco made a face at him, "But I want you to know that you being sorted with us... was the best thing to ever happen to me. I don't know if I could have made it this far without you. Even if we are the wrong sort," he snorted and Draco internally sighed. He had hoped over time Harry would have forgotten that comment. "You're the most incredible person I know and I... I really like you." He said, half-laughing as he got the words out. "I wish I could properly tell you how much."

"I know," Draco frowned at him, "I've felt it through the watch-"

Harry shook his head.

"I really don't think the watch does it justice," he told him and bit his lip. "I love you. A lot." He finally said.

Something was wrong. He didn't understand what it was though... Harry would tell him if there was a problem, Draco knew. He must be imagining it.

"Is there something you're not telling me?" Draco asked, just to be sure. Harry smiled weakly and shook his head. Okay then... maybe he was just emotional knowing how close they were to end of this God forsaken war. "Well, I feel like I have to give a big, romantic speech too." Draco told him. Harry laughed.

"No, you don't."

"I'm going to look like an ass if I don't. You've set the bar too high," Draco told him lightly, "Let me think... I can come up with something good. It'll sweep you off your feet." He nodded. Harry scoffed and swallowed.

"I'll let you mull over it," he said, squeezing his hands. "You can tell me afterwards."

"Oh, good," Draco nodded, "That gives me time to come up with a rhyming scheme and everything." He said and Harry rolled his eyes. "Fair warning, it's going to make you cry." He said. Harry let go. Something about it left Draco's fingers tingling.

"I bet it will," he said softly and kissed him again, slower this time. Draco wasn't sure if they were planning on getting a room right before fighting to the death, but sure. Okay. Then Harry pulled away with a sigh, resting a hand on the side of his neck, "I have to go do something real fast. They found the diadem. Ron got rid of it." He said and Draco felt a surge of relief.

"Wait - so we have the snake and whatever else Severus mentioned?" He asked. Something flashed over Harry's face.

"Just the snake," he said and Draco raised an eyebrow, "I'm taking care of the seventh horcrux." He promised and let his hands fall so he could grab Draco's hands and kiss those instead. Why was he being so affectionate right now? He wasn't usually this touchy. The nagging feeling in the back of his head was sending up all sorts of warning signals, but Draco couldn't figure out how to best vocalize his concern.

"Harry..." He began and shook his head, "Where are you going? I'll come with you."

Harry shook his head.

"I need you to find Ron and Hermione," he said quietly and licked his lips, "But I'm going to meet you before everything starts, okay? I promise I won't be long." He added. Draco hesitated. "Please, Draco?" He asked. Ugh. Draco nodded. He kind of had to relent given how accommodating Harry had been in the past...seven years. Harry smiled softly at him. "Thanks," he managed and pushed past him. Draco stood still for a moment before turning around.

Nah. He didn't trust this.

"Harry?" He called and watched when he paused, "I know I didn't listen when you asked me to stay, but... stay? Please?" He asked anyways. Something was wrong. Something was _wrong_. Harry looked at him before grimacing. Draco wondered if he might have broken him when he didn't respond right away.

"Fuck," he whispered and took a step back to Draco, "Stop making this harder." He said. Draco shook his head. What was happening? "I want you to come with me."

"Okay," Draco nodded. That was good, "Where are we going?"

"You can't."

Alright, what the Hell?

"Try and stop me," Draco said stubbornly and Harry closed his eyes, "I thought we got past this sort of thing. Let me help you." Draco said, brows furrowing together. Harry swallowed and looked away. " _Harry-"_

"Do you remember," he cut in slowly and looked at the ground, "How upset you were when you found out Dumbledore didn't tell me he was dying?" He asked. Draco nodded. It was a dick move for sure. Harry blinked a few times. "I think I get his side now." He whispered, voice breaking towards the end. Draco stared. What did that mean? What did that _mean?_ He opened his mouth to ask what all these weird riddles were when something clicked into place.

Five. Four. Three. Two. One.

"No," Draco said, shaking his head, "No, you don't. No, you fucking _don't-_ "

Five. Four. Three. Two. One.

"Draco, I-"

Five. Four. Three. Two. One.

"No. No, no, no - fuck. _Damn_ it. Damn you!"

_Five. Four. Three. Two. One._

"There isn't anything I can do."

Five... Four... Three... Two.... _Fucking_ one.

"I-" Draco began, overwhelmed, and then grabbed Harry's arm to pushed him roughly to the side so they were in an empty classroom.

"Well," Harry commented wryly as he was slammed into a wall, "This is new for us." He said lightly. Normally, Draco might be indignant at that implication, but he was way too far from amused. The humor left Harry's face a few seconds later. "Draco..."

"You were just going to leave?" Draco asked and Harry closed his eyes, "No. _Look at me!"_ Draco hissed and hit the side of his arm, "You selfish-" He started and then turned away, putting his hands on top of his head. "That... if you had actually left... without telling me..." He breathed out slowly, "I would have never forgiven you. Never." He whispered and looked up at the ceiling. No. No, no, no, _no._

Harry shifted behind him.

"Draco, we both know you're the only person who can talk me out of it and... there really isn't another option-"

"I don't care!" Draco shouted, spinning back around to point at him, "I don't _fucking_ care! If there isn't another option then don't act like I'm some unreasonable, overly emotional dumbass who can't handle the truth. I'm not an idiot and you know that. Either I find a loophole or if there isn't one then give me the chance to say a proper goodbye or digest the news or at the very _least_ hear from you because fuck you for thinking that hearing it from anyone else would have been okay!" He shouted. Harry flinched.

Draco collapsed into a chair and buried his face in his hands.

Five... Five... _Five-_

A hand touched his knee.

"Hey..." Harry's voice came and Draco glanced up to look at him, "You're right. I'm sorry. Draco, I'm sorry. I wanted - Draco, please."

Fuck him. Draco clenched his jaw and looked away. Harry sighed.

"Why do we have to give up literally everything?" Draco asked him, "I thought karma would have kicked in by now." He whispered. Harry gave a small, mirthless chuckle before resting his head against his leg from where he was sitting on the ground. Draco tried to find some sort of remaining strength in him to finish the conversation. He couldn't.

"His soul is latched with mine," Harry finally whispered, "As long as I live... so does he."

"Anyway to separate them?"

"No."

"To just kill part of it?"

"No."

"Maybe we can weaken him enough so we can trap him until you're a hundred or something," Draco said and Harry propped his head up to look at him. Yeah. He knew that wouldn't work either. Draco slid off the chair so they were both on to floor and buried his face in his shoulder instead, trying his best not to start sobbing helplessly. "Okay." He finally said, voice weak.

Maybe if Draco was lucky... they wouldn't be parted for very long. Draco would stick around to kill Voldemort and then maybe see how many killing curses were still flying about.

"You're okay with this?"

"Are you giving me any other choice?" Draco asked bitterly as he pulled back and ran his hand over Harry's cheek. Fuck. Fuck, fuck, _fuck._

"I'm sorry." Harry tried again and Draco bit his tongue as he tried to think of something to say. He thought back to the night he killed Dumbledore. "I know it was wrong. I thought about writing a note or something, but there isn't a lot of time and I'm terrible at words-"

"I'm coming with you," Draco interrupted. Harry paused as Draco held up a hand, "I won't try to stop anything. I promise. I just... don't want you to be alone." He said quietly. Harry held up his hand to reveal a tiny pebble glimmering in his hand. The Resurrection Stone. Draco didn't know how he got it out of the snitch. Didn't really care. Harry rolled it over with his thumb thoughtfully.

"I'll have my parents with me."

Draco nodded.

"Well, I'm going to be there too," he said stubbornly, "I can go in my animagus form. They won't recognize it, but I'm not leaving you to do that with a bunch of ghosts." He said stubbornly. Harry smiled a bit and rolled the stone of his palm.

"My mom says she likes you."

Draco blinked. Who said what now?

"You're... already using it?" He asked, alarmed. He paused - feeling uncharacteristically nervous. "Uh, hi Mrs. Potter," he said and Harry's smile widened, "And Mr. Potter," he added. "Nice to sort of meet you." He said. Harry chuckled lightly before kissing him. "Stop it! Your parents are apparently here." Draco grumbled and Harry stood up, offering a hand. "Do Ron and Hermione know?" He asked. Harry paused.

"I think Hermione's figured it out." He said softly. Draco sighed.

"Not good enough, you dick. Come on. Let's go tell them and then we can go." He said and accepted the hand up.

Telling Hermione and Ron went as well as one might expect. However, more importantly, these two were the _worst_.

"You sicken me," Draco announced, crossing his arms over his chest. He didn't really feel like teasing them given everything that was going on... but he had to try and keep people's spirits up. For Harry's sake if nothing else. Hermione gasped, shoving Ron away from her in a desperate attempt to look innocent... as if she hadn't been snogging Ron with a disgusting amount of joy. "Really? Now?" He asked.

"We - I wasn't - the house elves-" Hermione squeaked and Ron got back up, positively _beaming_.

"Oh, hey. How are you two?" He asked and Harry glanced over at Draco.

"We had a whole thing planned for when this finally happened," Draco complained, "Now we don't even have time to do it! Unbelievable." He grumbled and Harry patted him on the shoulder before giving Hermione and Ron a quick grin with congratulations. Draco wasn't sure how they were going to spin this as 'congrats on getting together, but now Harry must die'. "Ron got a whole speech when we got together," Draco muttered, "I wanted a whole speech."

"You can give us your speech later." Ron suggested and Draco grimaced before turning to Harry.

Whatever lightheartedness had previously filled the air was zapped as Harry took a step forward.

"There's something I need to tell you."

* * *

The woods were... quiet.

It was easy enough to get by all the Death Eaters readying for the fight with Harry's cloak and Draco's animagus form. Voldemort was among them, pacing back and forth with hissed order and growls as he tried to decide who would first make their attempt to get the Elder Wand out of the mirror. Draco inwardly smiled to himself. He had outsmarted the Dark Lord himself on quite a few occasions now, but the idea that he _still_ didn't know the wand was gone...

Well. It felt nice.

When they finally got close enough, Draco felt Harry's hand brush him and it was hard - impossible even - to keep his emotions in check. He sat down, refusing to move as he saw the Resurrection Stone fall from Harry's hand. The cloak followed.

Voldemort's tirade went quiet.

"Harry Potter." He greeted softly and Harry stepped forward. Some Death Eaters parted to the side to let him pass while others spit on the ground in front of him. Draco resisted the urge to growl. His heart was thudding. Loudly. He tried to remind himself that the most he could do was be the strength Harry had been for him in the past.

Five. Four. Three. Two. One.

No matter how many times Draco counted... the pain never seemed to leave. Even now, this seemed like a perfect Bellatrix orchestrated illusion. For him to watch helplessly as... as...

Dora. Andromeda. Hermione. Ron.

If Voldemort didn't die they could suffer.

Sirius. Severus. Remus. Fleur. Gabrielle.

Harry was sacrificing himself for them. He had to find a way to be okay with that.

Ted. Teddy. Zoe. Tristam. Theo. Sadie.

Harry's eyes were searching. Draco got up to move in his line of sight. Voldemort was saying something, but he got the feeling Harry wasn't listening either as he met Draco's gaze and relaxed. He could do this, he could this, he could this - he _had_ to do this.

Neville. Luna. Astoria. Molly. Ginny.

The wand raised.

Five. Four. Three. Two. One.

_"Avada Kadavra!"_

It felt like Draco had just died instead. One second he could breathe and the next he couldn't. The air had gone from his lungs. The world felt like nothing. Draco's body felt weak and internally he thanked his lucky stars he was in his animagus for because if he had been in his human form... he might not have made it. Harry dropped to the ground, hand reaching out in the direction Draco was in before his eyes fluttered closed.

The Death Eaters murmured.

"Is he dead?" Bellatrix asked and then pushed someone forward, "Go check. Make sure." She ordered and from somewhere within Draco's realm of grief he recognized the figure moving forward.

Narcissa Malfoy.

He had a lot of questions. Until this moment, Draco hadn't known she was even alive. What did that mean for his father? For him? What exactly did happen at the manor? Was she a prisoner? Or one of them? Draco couldn't think of which question he wanted to ask first as she walked over to Harry's body. Part of him wanted to growl at anyone going near Harry, but forced himself to keep quiet as his mother knelt down and ran a hand softly over Harry's chest, pressing her ear down.

Everyone leaned forward. After a few seconds, Bellatrix spoke again.

"Well? What is the answer, Cissy?" She asked. Narcissa straightened up and turned to face Voldemort. When she answered, the words bounded across the woods. Draco had expected them, but they cut no less when she spoke - looking the Dark Lord straight in the eyes.

"Dead."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Narcissa Malfoy, checking to see if Harry's alive: Get your bitch ass soul back in here before you make my son cry.
> 
> I've really added too many OCs but like... JK just didn't come through tbh. Fantastic Beasts is cool and all, but I wanted to see the cowboy American wizard and if nobody will give him to me then damnit I'll create him myself. Welcome, Trevor. Also, as someone who spent many years in the southern US... there would be magic guns. There just would be.
> 
> So. I gotta warn you.... Good news and bad news. The good news is that because everyone is so well prepared and the Death Eaters' numbers are already hurting, the character deaths aren't going to quite line up with canon deaths. However, that is not to say there will be... no character deaths. I think most y'all will be pretty 'eh' about, but there is one in particular... It isn't 100% certain bc I'm only like 80% done with that chapter, but.. It's like 98% certain. I'm sorry. Just prepare yourself.
> 
> MORE GOOD NEWS THO! I always thought the canon Voldemort death was kinda... eh. I wasn't a fan. Honestly, the whole Elder Wand deal seemed like a sneaky way to just figure out a way to keep Harry from having to actively kill anyone, which I guess was fair since it was originally meant for kids, but like... idk. I feel like it kinda left the childlike atmosphere behind around book 5? If Hermione can have Mudblood carved into her arm then I say let Harry straight up murder the hoe.
> 
> There was ONE specific scenario I did have mind that I thought would have been awesome and I am SO excited for you guys to have my version of how Voldy should have died.


	19. Year Seven (In Which They Straight-Up Murder People)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WE DID IT!!!! The last (official) chapter. I have cute epilogue planned to tie up some loose ends, but as far as the war goes... yeah. This is it. Happy Holidays!
> 
>  **WARNINGS:** A couple here. I think the biggest one is there is a graphic death. It's kinda intense. If you're familiar with my other works I would say that the goriest I've written up until this point would be like a... 4 on a scale 1-10. This might be a 6 or 7. Nothing too crazy, but a little more than I tend to do.
> 
> Also, character death. Idk if it counts as major? Definitely not major. Medium character death? Idk fam but there is death.
> 
> Lastly, more allusions to torture.
> 
> Don't worry. Still lots of fluff towards the end lol

There would be a time in Draco's life where he would be asked, in front of hundreds of people, what some of the worst experiences of his life were.

The answers were quite simple. The weeks he had been endlessly tortured in Malfoy Manor was a big one. He might even go into a few details of some of the things they did to him there. How it had gone past simple cruciatus curses and to the point where (if Draco had more control over his voice) he would have been begging for death.

Other examples might be watching loved ones die or living as a double agent. Maybe his disownment. Draco really could pull anything out of the air and the crowd would be satisfied.

The real answer tended to surprise people. One of the worst moments of his life was realizing that his future husband was alive.

Which sounded like an asshole joke, but Draco was deadly serious on the matter. Not because he wished Harry was dead or was not relieved when he found out he wasn't, but because he would live the rest of his life in fear of having to feel that... horrible, awful, excruciating pain of Harry dying all over again. Harry simply wasn't allowed to die first. It was an agreement Draco bullied him into later. If there was any situation that Harry might die then Draco had to be updated so he could beat him to it because there was absolutely no way he living through that ever again. Never.

"Dead."

His mother's voice had barely echoed over the grounds when Draco felt his entire body go numb.

There were scattered applause from the Death Eaters and Draco's mind was torn between fight and flight. He was outnumbered. He wouldn't make it. All he had was a brief element of surprise.

And yet... he wanted so badly to cut the tongues out of their laughing faces.

Blue eyes met his. Draco was momentarily stunned to find his mother looking at him. There was no way she recognized him, right? Or did she? His moment of uncertainty was squashed the second Narcissa straightened up and have a subtle shake of her head.

 _Wait_ , she seemed to say. Wait for what? What was there left to wait for?

The answer was obvious, of course. There was still a war to be fought. The snake still needed to die. Then Voldemort himself and if Harry was gone... Draco might have to take up the mantle. Chosen One or not.

"To think," Voldemort finally spoke, voice barely above the whisper, "I thought I needed the Elder Wand to kill you." He said to Harry's corpse. Draco ground his teeth. "Collect the boy. We'll let them see his corpse and then decide what path to take... and someone get me that wand." He added darkly.

Draco took that as his cue. Sprinting as fast as he could, weaving through the trees, he rushed back to the castle. He shifted during the last leap - not breaking stride as he hit the ground against the stone. McGonagall saw him first, reaching out a hand to steady him. He wasn't sure what he looked like... ashen and pale, probably.

"They're coming... they're coming," he told her, "They're going to attack soon - THEY'RE COMING!" He shouted to the rest of the castle, "READY YOURSELVES!"

Nobody needed to be told twice. Wards flickered to life and patronuses snapped into place as dementors began to descend down. Draco could see giants in the distance, crushing trees as they made their way towards the castle. Voldemort would know they had time to organize by this point... he just wouldn't realize how much. He turned to where lines of people readied themselves. Right. He took a long breath.

Five.

He should find Ron and Hermione.

Four.

Everyone would be fine. They had set enough traps in place to handle this.

Three.

It didn't stop his heart from pounding loudly as the castle seemed to shake at the approach.

Two.

He could do this.

One.

There was a loud bang and the first of the wards broke.

"BRAVE WARRIORS!" Voldemort's voice echoed over the grounds, shaking the ground with the pure volume. McGonagall stiffened beside him, "WE ARE READY TO FIGHT! I DO NOT WISH TO SPILL SUCH NOBLE AND VALIANT BLOOD SO NEEDLESSLY," he continued and Draco's eyes flickered over the crowd. He could see the Death Eaters slowly exiting for forest. One by one... he could even make out his mother's flash of blonde hair among them, "SO I OFFER YOU THIS ONE CHANCE! BRING ME THE ELDER WAND YOU SO BRAVELY GUARD AND I CAN PROMISE YOUR SAFETY! AS IT IS... YOUR PRECIOUS SAVIOR IS DEAD!"

 _This_ got a reaction. A sharp shout followed with mutters and discontent among the crowd. McGonagall's hand tightened around Draco's arm. He turned to look at her, afraid of what he might find. She stared back at him questioningly. He wanted to shake his head. To lie. To pretend it was fine.

This was McGonagall though... even Draco couldn't fool her. He gave a small nod.

She stared blankly back at him for a moment. There was a flash of raw grief before she closed her eyes and took a long breath. Then she nodded firmly to herself.

"HARRY POTTER CAME TO ME BEFORE THE BATTLE HAD EVEN BEGUN! THE BOY WHO LIVED DIED WITHOUT GIVING ME A FIGHT!" Voldemort continued and Draco's jaw clenched. There were more murmurs rising with rapid concern, "EVEN HE KNEW THAT WITH ALL OF YOUR EFFORTS AND REINFORCEMENTS THAT THIS FIGHT WOULD BE FUTILE! FOLLOW IN YOUR LEADER'S EXAMPLE! SURRENDER QUICKLY AND YOU MAY LIVE!"

A few people gave panicked shouts. There was another thud as one of the other wards came crumbling down while others scattered away. An uneasiness was rising while some of the Death Eaters prowled at the borders, tauntingly flicking their wands and waving brightly.

"YOU ARE A LIAR!" Ginny's voice shouted over the whispers, "YOU THINK YOU CAN SCARE US?!" She demanded and from beside her, Fred and George raised their wands.

"HE BEAT YOU WHEN HE WAS STILL IN DIAPERS, VOLDY!" Fred yelled and there was a low chuckle, "HE WOULDN'T HAVE DIED WITHOUT A FIGHT!"

There was a small cheer at that. Neville raised his wand as well.

"AND EVEN IF HE IS DEAD! THEN WE ARE HERE TO AVENGE HIM!" He shouted. This grew a larger cheer as a few people scrambled to try and raise new wards, "YOU ASK FOR A SURRENDER BECAUSE YOU KNOW WE WILL WIN!"

Draco swallowed. A giant was banging resolutely on some of the magic separating them from their opponents. They didn't have much time. Another shudder went over the castle.

"FOR HARRY!" Ron's voice yelled. At this, the crowd's previous energy shot back up as everyone started pointing their wands at the sky. Draco couldn't make out everything that was yelled. He could hear some shouts in English and others in languages he didn't know, but he did recognize Harry's name in most of them.

"FOR HARRY!" A few people repeated and it was then that the wards went down, sending a spiral of light bursting over them. Draco steeled his nerves and went to move forward. McGonagall pulled him back.

"Professor?"

"Good luck out there, Mr. Malfoy," she said solemnly, "If you don't mind, I would like to go first."

Draco opened his mouth to ask what exactly she meant by that, but didn't have the chance seeing as she moved gracefully forward. A few people moved aside from her as she casually deflected curses as she went. Draco inwardly grimaced. He did _not_ fancy being the first person to take her on. Sure enough, one of the Death Eaters stepped forward only to be immediately taken down. Draco shook his head in silent awe.

Right. He glanced around, readying himself to take the first plunge into the chaos. He was about to step out when he heard his name.

"Draco - _Draco,"_ someone called and Draco felt his stomach knot the second he saw who it was, "Where's Harry?" Sirius asked, rushing over to grab his arm. "People need to see him right now with all that bullshit Voldemort is saying. He's trying to scare us, but we -" Sirius started and then stopped. Draco could have kicked himself. Why didn't he think about Sirius of all people? How could he not have warned him?

From outside the castle walls, someone screamed.

"Where is Harry?" Sirius asked again, voice going from determined to scared so quickly that Draco could have curled on the ground at the sound of it. He didn't know how to answer. He didn't. "Draco, where is he? Where is Harry?" He asked again, gripping his arm so tightly that it hurt. "Just tell me where he is-"

"Black, some of us are trying to be useful right-" Severus interrupted when he spied Sirius, but cut himself off as he moved closer. Draco stared back in a desperate attempt to convey what was happening. Comforting wasn't quite his godfather's strong suit, but he did hope that maybe he could at least try to help. "Let go of him." He said coolly, but Sirius' grip on Draco only got tighter. He let out a small noise of pain.

"Sirius, you're hurting me," he said quietly and gently put his hand over his, "I... I'm sorry." He whispered.

Sirius stared back. Despite the rising cries and shouts from outside, he didn't seem to react. He just stood there. Not moving. As if perhaps the world had gone still until he digested everything.

"But - no," Sirius said and gave a shaky laugh, "No. No, that... That can't... He isn't-" he tried and looked over at Severus, "He's wrong, right? He's wrong. I wouldn't let that happen. _You_ wouldn't let that happen. Not to Lily's son. You... We wouldn't let that happen." He said and shook his head, "Right? You wouldn't let anything hurt Harry," Sirius said, nodding to Draco which such certainty that it hit Draco square in the chest.

He had been trying hard to contain his grief to soldier on through the rest of this God forsaken war, but... he felt like he was seconds away from tipping over.

"Sirius..."

"No, no, no. Fuck. He... He can't be dead. That means Lily and James are gone too. For real this time. He was the last we had of them. It was my job to protect him. He can't be dead. He can't be. I escaped Azkaban! I wanted to die for _twelve years_ , but I couldn't because I had to keep him safe. He... He can't be. I can't have failed again," Sirius said, almost breathlessly as the hysteria started to settle in. A bang sounded from somewhere outside.

"You didn't fail," Severus said, looking over his shoulder before glancing back at Sirius warily, "His fate was sealed for years."

Oh, what the _fuck?_ Draco felt his own pain waver in the face of that truly abysmal attempt at comfort. He looked at Severus, slightly aghast. The man only gave a helpless shrug in return.

"What?" Sirius asked and Draco closed his eyes.

"Harry was the last horcrux," Draco cut in before Severus could make things worse, "He sacrificed himself so we can kill Voldemort." He said gently. It was hard though. It was hard because he was angry and hurt and he didn't have time to actually be okay with any of this. Severus paused to look at them both for a moment before turning away. Draco's mouth dropped. Where the Hell did he think he was going? Before Draco could call after him, Sirius had spoken again.

"He was... but..." Sirius murmured, looking like he had been punched in the face. Repeatedly. Draco bit his lip and rubbed his arm. He couldn't stay here. There was a war they needed to fight, but it also wasn't fair to just _leave_ him here. Sirius could recover quickly, sure, but within the next five seconds? After finding out that the last bit of his best friends had disappeared forever? Not likely.

"Sirius!" A voice called and Draco felt a stab of relief when Severus appeared once again, this time with Remus by his side. Okay. That was actually a good idea. Draco would forgive his godfather for abandoning them. "What happened? Are you okay?" He asked and Draco immediately retracted his forgiveness. Severus didn't _tell_ him?

"Harry's dead," Sirius mumbled, fingers trembling as a bit. Remus stiffened. "He's really dead. I..." Sirius tried to speak again, but the grief seemed too heavy. Remus turned to look at Draco, eyes questioning. He gave a small nod to confirm. For a moment, Draco worried he would have two mourning Marauders, but Remus only stared back for about thirty seconds before taking a long breath.

"Okay," he finally said, voice sounding thick, "Okay. I need one of you to find Dora and keep her safe." He said and Draco stood up. He could do that. "She's near the courtyard," Remus told him and then looked at Severus, "Get him a calming draft and he'll be fine." Remus told him, squeezing Sirius' shoulder. Severus merely nodded and disappeared back into a castle without another word. "Who killed him? Was it really Voldemort?" Remus asked Draco.

"It's... a lot to explain right now, but yes."

"Right," Remus muttered, "I would... prepare yourself. When he does snap out of this he is going to be _pissed,"_ Remus warned. Draco looked at Sirius warily. That was... maybe good? During his time and Bill and Fleur's house, Draco's snooping had him stumble upon a particular confrontation between Peter Pettigrew's animagus and Sirius. Draco hadn't stuck around to see the ending, but he had decided rather quickly that on the rare instances Sirius was actually upset... he would not stand in his way.

Giving them one last concerned look, he left them to recover while he went off into the midst of fighting to find Dora.

As predicted, Theo's planning and Draco's overcautious nature paid off.

They vastly outnumbered the Death Eaters. However, the giants, dementors, and other werewolves did cause some... setbacks.

"I got the big one!" A voice called and Draco almost tripped when he saw Astoria and Daphne Greengrass both on brooms flying high above to launch attacks at some of the giants while Hermione held her patronus high enough to shield them. Draco was a little aghast to find them battling when they had a perfectly nice safe house to be hiding in, but he wouldn't complain.

"Father," Theo's voice called out somewhere, "How nice of you to join!" He said, readying his wand. Draco went to aid him only to find Blaise had beaten him there with a nod at Draco to show he had it under control. Right. Good. A shot echoed through the air, sending a few people looking around in alarm. Draco glanced up and grinned. The muggles were having fun at least. Jenkins and a few American wizards had taken to setting up behind one of Hogwart's walls and popping out to shoot at the opposing side. Draco was really impressed at their aim. Death Eaters went down within seconds - if not dead then injured enough to be stunned or killed by someone on the field at least. By this point, it was brutally clear that they were winning.

And yet it didn't matter. The snake remained.

Draco couldn't see Voldemort among the chaos. Most of the Death Eaters had made their way towards the Mirror of Erised, which served as the perfect focal point. Death Eaters would take turns attempting to figure out how to figure out how the mirror worked while others tried to defend them. Not that Death Eaters were really good at working as a team. It seemed fairly easy to pick them off. 

Unfortunately, he wasn't the only one to realize this. The mirror was quickly abandoned to make way for duels. His heart quickly stopped when one went towards Zoe. Draco yanked out his wand, helping disarm a few people near her, but Zoe seemed to be doing pretty good despite having bad luck. Spells came precariously close, but her she manage to deflect or dodge everyone.

"Nice, Zoe." He called and she grinned, winking at him before launching a disarming spell that sent one Death Eater falling back with a yelp.

“I told you I learned how to handle myself!” Zoe yelled, punching the air, “No amount of luck can keep me from kicking your ass, prat!” She shouted. Draco laughed before turning back around to disarm his own opponent. He was just about to run off to find the others again when he heard a sharp gasp. He turned back around to see Zoe’s hair flickering between gold and brown.

“Zoe?” He called and turned to look across the battlefield. Spells flew around her uselessly, none coming close enough to do more than graze her. Draco frowned. That was good, right? Why did she look so scared? He opened his mouth to ask when Zoe turned to look around, clearly panicked.

“ZACH!” She shouted and Draco froze when he realized what the problem was. If she had good luck right now, then - 

“ZOE!” A voice yelled and Draco turned just in time to see Zach get his square in the chest with a burst of green light. Zoe screamed. Shit.

" _ZACH!"_ She shrieked, but was stopped by Pansy appeared out of nowhere to start pulling her away. "LET GO! _LET GO OF ME!"_ She cried, but Pansy was steadfast in her resolve to pull her away. Draco raised his wand to block a few incoming spells, but paused when he saw a few deflect themselves. What the...? He looked around, a bit bewildered, but didn't think much of it as he raced towards where Pansy and Zoe were still struggling.

"He's gone. Zoe, he's gone," Pansy was saying as Draco held up a protego charm. Zoe's luck kept a majority away, but with her so distressed he wouldn't risk a few getting by. Pansy dragged Zoe into the castle. "LOVEGOOD!" She shouted and pointed at Zoe. "WHERE DO WE PUT HER?"

"There's a passageway through here," Draco said before Luna could get distracted, "Come on. Zoe. Zoe, please. Just stay here for a couple seconds while the shock wears off. Please." He tried and Pansy ran a hand through her hair reassuringly. "Do you have this?" He asked her quietly. Pansy nodded. Unexpected, but Draco would take it. Giving a nod of approval, he went back out into the midst of endless spells.

Where the Hell was Dora?

She was most certainly not allowed to die. If she did then not only was Draco going to be pissed, but Andromeda, Ted, and Remus were going to be so heartbroken and - fuck. She had a baby now. Giving a frustrated hiss through his teeth he climbed up a pile of rubble to try and - _there_. A flash of pink hair caught his eye a few yards away. Hopping down, he weaved through the blinding back and forth of spells and yells to find Dora disarming her opponent.

"Come to join the fun?" She called and Draco raised his wand to throw a few curses around them, "What did you need Remus for?"

"I'll tell you later," Draco said, unwilling to start a new round of people learning that Harry's death was, indeed, very real. "I - _Dora!"_ He shouted and barely managed to levitate a rock to block a sudden flash of green coming from behind his cousin. Dora spun around, eyes blown wide as she seemed to register how close the hit came. More importantly though was the fact the onslaught was not done. More spells came at them both all with a rapid fire. Draco tried to block what he could, but Dora ended up taking the brunt of it. It was probably only her training under Moody that allowed her to move fast enough to deflect and dodge well enough so that they weren't dead in minutes.

"Look who it is, Draco," Dora gritted out, a bead of sweat rolling down the side of her face as she focused, "I think... this might be a bit personal..." She growled and another flash of red came. This time, the spell caught Dora's leg and she let out a sharp scream of pain. Draco yanked her arm so she fell behind him.

"I'm glad the two of you are together," Bellatrix's voice called, "It makes my job so much easier."

...this wasn't good.

He couldn't see his aunt. She was shrouded somewhere in the masses of chaos. It made Draco more nervous as he looked around - trying to find a sign of her as Dora caught her breath behind him.

"Are you going to hide?!" He shouted and reached back to grab Dora's arm. It was fine, it was fine, it was -

A flash of green shot back at them.

This time it was Dora who knocked him to the ground so that the curse narrowly missed them. Draco swallowed hard. People were parting, he realized. No. Not parting. They were _scrambling_ away. Bellatrix's face stared back at him with barely concealed rage burning brightly underneath. Draco might have had some anger of his own if it wasn't for the sharp jolt of fear prickling through him.

"Hello, darling niece and nephew," She greeted tauntingly and raised her wand, "I'm surprised either of you are still alive... or coherent." She added with a raised eyebrow at Draco. His jaw clenched. "I can rectified that." She promised lowly.

"I wouldn't be so sure," a new voice said and Draco felt his heart stutter to stop when Andromeda stepped out in front of them, "Go heal Nymphadora." She added over her shoulder and Draco glanced down to see Dora's leg was swelling from where Bellatrix's curse hit her. Shit. He wasn't sure what that was. Pulling her up, he helped move her to the side as others rushed over to aid either Andromeda or Bellatrix. They both raised their hands in unison.

"I don't need any help with _her,"_ Bellatrix said lowly, eyes completely fixed on Andromeda's face. Draco bit his lip. He didn't like this. Not at all. Still, he had to focus on Dora. Quickly, he ripped away the lower half of her robes to try and get a better view of the injury. He felt a stab of relief when he looked down. Okay, that wasn't bad at all. He could heal that. The issue was that he wasn't sure he could heal it fast enough to go help Andromeda. Not that she wanted help, apparently. She had waved away others who had joined her as she stared back calmly at Bellatrix.

"I'm not sure, Bella," Andromeda said quietly, "Our parents always said I was the better dueler."

Bellatrix's eyes narrowed as she raised her wand.

"I've had more practice now," she warned, "I'm just pleased I finally have a chance to right the wrongs you've done to our family. Breeding our bloodline with muggleborns and _werewolves_ , she sneered, wrinkling her nose, "Poisoning the mind of even poor little Draco," she said and Draco inwardly rolled his eyes as he quickly muttered healing spells. "Did he tell you all the fun we had together?" She asked, licking her lips. Andromeda's eyes narrowed.

"I can promise it won't be as much fun as we'll have." She said darkly and raised her own wand. Dora made a small noise of objection, but Draco put a hand on her leg to keep her from trying to get up.

"Oh?" Bellatrix laughed, "I would accept those offers of help while you can, 'Meda. Ideally I would like a challenge-"

"You'll get one," a voice said and from across the battlefield various fights almost seemed to halt as Narcissa Malfoy stepped out. Bellatrix's eyes darkened as she took out her wand, moving to stand by Andromeda. "I warned you in the beginning, Bellatrix. I would never be a problem for you if you left my family alone." She said and jutted out her chin, eyes glittering, "But my husband is dead and my son tortured. I think it safe to say... you and I have a problem." She said, voice somehow quiet even with it echoing across the castle's grounds.

"I knew you were a traitor in the end. Do you really think you can take me?" Bellatrix asked, voice hardening. Narcissa scoffed.

"I think there's a reason you never asked me to take the mark despite knowing I never planned on having any other children," she said and pointed her wand forward, "What, exactly, were you so scared of, Bella?" She asked. Bellatrix sneered in return, but there was a hint of something behind her eyes. If Draco didn't know any better... he might have said it was fear.

" _Avada-"_ She started, but was cut off by Narcissa moving first.

_"Crucio!"_

Bellatrix barely dodged in time. The spell nicked her arm, sending her stumbling back with a sharp gasp of pain. When she looked back up her eyes were wild. Not that she had much recovery time because Andromeda stuck next, sending a yellow jet of light hurtling at her.

Draco had never thought what it would be like to see the infamous Black sisters duel. Andromeda had once said they had been pitted against one another often as children. That they became so familiar with their dueling styles that the whole thing became a sort of routine. He now saw exactly what she meant. This could barely be classified as a duel. It was... something else entirely. A dance, maybe. It seemed to enrapture the attention of both sides as light flew back and forth while they each deflected and dodged with ease. The strikes were fast and consistent. Bellatrix was clearly breaking under the pressure of both her sisters. Neither were taking turns. Andromeda and Narcissa struck again and again with little mercy as Bellatrix was reduced to going completely on the defensive. She alternated between protego charms and summoning bits of the earth to rise and serve and physical barriers between her and the spells.

"Bellatrix!" Someone called and Draco turned to see Rudolphus emerge with his wand out and eyes wild. Draco brought out his own wand, but Andromeda saw him first.

"Narcissa, move!" She shouted and with one last strike at Bellatrix, threw herself the few feet between Rudolphus and her sister. There was a sharp gasp from the crowd when the spell managed to catch her arm - spraying blood everywhere. Without thinking, Draco raised his wand and pointed it his uncle.

" _Avada Kadavra!"_ He shouted and a sharp jet of green light shot across the courtyard and hit Rudolphus square in the chest so he staggered back and hit the ground. He looked over to see his mother was on the ground, recovering from Andromeda pushing her out of the way when Bellatrix's voice sounded again.

" _Avada Kadavra!"_ She managed, echoing Draco's words right as a haunting scream fell over them all, sending Draco's skin prickling.

"NO!" Dora screamed, shoving Draco to the side to rush out, " _MOM!"_

Andromeda stumbled back, still jarred from Rudolphus' first hit, as the spell hit her in the back. Dora was rushing towards her.

No. No, no... Five. Four. Three. Two. One.

Andromeda hit the ground hard. Draco waited for her to get up. She had to get up. Dora tossed her wand to the side right as Narcissa summoned some of the wreckage around them to form a shield before Bella had a chance to strike again. A horrible, cackling laugh followed. Draco waited. He knew, logically, that she wasn't getting up. The rest of him didn't seem to get the message though as he stared blankly at the stillness around him.

The shock was immediately replaced with something else... a cold sort of anger he wasn't sure he had ever felt before.

"BELLATRIX!" He shouted and stood up to face her. His aunt paused, eyes falling on him with rage he was sure he mirrored.

"Draco-" his mother called, but he only shook his head and raised his wand. Bellatrix tilted her head - eyes flickering over him and then raised her own.

Draco had never dueled before. Not properly. Not like this.

He had served as a spy rather than a warrior. When he fought, he pretended to miss. When he killed, he killed in a shroud of discreet darkness. Never had he openly fought and meant harm to whomever he was fighting. He often thought the idea of it would be terrifying. He hadn't really liked dueling club or even those fake duels Harry used to have them in during the DA.

This though... this was different.

There was a something in his chest that made everything lighter. Anger seemed to crackle around him until he realized, rather calmly, that there were flames circling him and Bellatrix. He wasn't sure how... but he knew his magic had somehow summoned them so that the world knew this was between him and Bellatrix. That all the years he had spent with her were about to finally come to end so that he could have his vengeance - or die trying.

"You seem to be doing better after our fun!" Bellatrix sang and Draco felt his magic swell at the words. Emotional magic wasn't really his forte. Draco had always been very controlled and able to practice marvelous restraint compared to wizards like Harry who managed to push forward on brute force and emotional epiphanies. Now though, Draco suddenly understood the temptation to let the magic guide you rather than the other way around. He deflected a few curses, summoning barriers when he could to block some unforgivables before slashing out so that they were fighting in a whirl of color.

The wind picked up around them. Draco wasn't sure if it was the magic or a passing storm, but it sent their robes rippling as he continued to moved forward. Bellatrix was getting tired. So was he, but he let raw anger lead him through up until one idea came to the front of his mind. He wasn't sure why... the spell wasn't one he had ever been successful at, nor was he sure it would aid him in any way during this fight.

A voice that sounded strangely like Harry's whispered for him to do it anyways.

Now, Draco didn't _always_ listen to Harry... but this one time... he would.

" _EXPECTO_ _PATRONUM!"_

What if nothing happened? If he just stood there, failed at the spell, and got killed almost instantly? How _bloody_ embarrassing. For (mainly) this reason, Draco did try to remember the endless DA meetings of Harry being so incredibly nit-picky about everything from Draco's form to the movement of the wand. In the end though, he really only had one last bit of advice after badgering poor Draco for hours on end.

_Just focus on that memory._

The problem was... there wasn't just _one_. There were hundreds. His father chasing him around the manor. His mother reading him to sleep. Hermione and him stealing Harry's cloak so they could sneak off to the library. Ron hunting him down at the Burrow to force a Weasley sweater on him. Gabrielle's endless letters. Fleur sitting him down to give every little detail of her proposal. Sirius visiting Diagon Alley after being exonerated. Dora hiding under the table to scare him. Andromeda hugging him before getting on the train. Harry.

Harry, Harry, Harry.

It felt impossible to pick one thing. Normally, whenever he tried his patronus floundered - never quite forming due to the confusion.

This time something must have changed though because there was a moment of complete silence... and then blinding white light.

In theory, if happy memories could deter beings such as dementors then it wasn't all that surprising they had such an affect on dark wizards. Bellatrix stumbled back at the brightness as the light seemed to knock her to the ground. Draco cold hear some people gasp, but he ignored it as he took advantage of Bellatrix's weakened state to throw out one more curse.

 _"Sectumsempra!"_ He shouted and pulled his wand back so he could slash horizontally. There was a sharp slicing noise and Bellatrix made a bubbling sound as she grabbed at her throat. Blood spilled through her fingers when she tried to get up before gasping a few times. Draco watched. His body seemed to be catching up now. Exhausted from the fight as he walked over to her and kicked her wand to the side. Anger bubbled back up inside him - a hot hatred as he watched her try to breathe as she writhed on her knees. “You look like you’re in a lot of pain, Bellatrix,” Draco said as he knelt down in front of her, “You know, I remember when I was being tortured that someone told me the best way to deal with pain is to just... count down from five. Maybe when you reach one it’ll be over.” He said. Bellatrix's eyes widened. "You want to try it?" He asked.

He wondered what it would look like if he used the cruciatus curse on her like this. Bellatrix knew that answer, certainly. That had been what she did to him.

"If I remember correctly, it took you three days to fix my throat when you sliced it open. You want to know what it would feel like if I used the cruciatus curse on you right now?" He asked her. She was shaking now, face going blue as she struggled to breathe. God, he fucking _hated_ her. "To have your bones melting and lungs rupture as blood pours from your throat? It makes you want to die, I promise you. You can feel the hole and the air and somehow not being able to breathe isn't even the worst part." He said lowly. There something in Draco - something dark and broken - that whispered for him to do it. After all she did to him? That was _nothing_. At least she would end up dead at the end of it. Absently, he let his wand touch the tip of her nose.

"Draco." A voice whispered and something touched his shoulder, "Draco stop." Hermione told him firmly, "Stop. Just kill her."

"No," he said and tried to shove her off of him, "She needs to know - she killed Andromeda and she needs to _know-"_ Draco began, sounding a bit hysterical.

Bellatrix fell to the ground completely, blood still pooling at her throat. She wasn't dead. Not yet. It was a horribly slow way to die and Bellatrix would take longer on principle. She wasn't one to go down without a fight. Hermione's hand squeezed his shoulder tightly.

"She might deserve it," Hermione told him, "But you don't. Okay?"

He didn't deserve _what?_ He had already done shit like this. He had killed people. He had tortured people. He was just as bad as she was in some ways. Draco wanted to scream. Bellatrix had taken Andromeda away from him. She had taken his sanity from him. She had... she had...

A light caught his attention. Weird. He wouldn't have thought his patronus would have stuck around after using a dark curse. Had he casted a corporeal? Part of him hoped he didn't... Harry would have wanted to see. He looked up, fully expecting to find a white fox darting behind him somewhere. Hermione gave a sharp intake behind him.

Oh, come _on_.

Draco couldn't quite describe the emotion that came over him. It was something akin to acceptance... maybe even forgiveness (though he swore until his dying breath that he would _never_ forgive Bellatrix Lestrange). Whatever it was, he felt it dull whatever else was gripping him and raised his wand.

" _Avada Kadavra."_

Bellatrix went still.

Hermione's hand was still on him. He was grateful. There was no way he would have found the strength to get back up on his own. Off in the distance, he could hear Voldemort screaming, but even his rage seemed muffled by the fading light around him. Draco shook his head, fighting tears.

"I'm sorry," he whispered when a stag looked back at him, "I'm so sorry."

The stag bowed his head at him. For whatever reason that seemed to snap Draco out of his devolving emotional breakdown.

"Now you're just embarrassing both of us," Draco said even though his voice broke towards the end. Maybe it was better Harry didn't see this after all. Draco was seconds away from bawling in the middle of a battle field. "You know," he said, forcing lightness, "I've literally made out with several men and this is somehow the gayest thing to ever happen to me." He informed the stag. It snorted. "Yeah, well, if you're Harry's soul from the beyond or whatever..." He tried, losing the words right as he found them. Taking a long breath he reached out - barely touching the stag's snout when his disappeared with a final burst of light.

Well then.

Draco swallowed and looked around. Hermione was still there, thank God. He needed her.

"Come on," she said gently, taking his hand. "We're close. I promise we're close to being done." She told him and Draco let himself numbly be led away from the body. Despite the fact the fighting was ramping up, everything seemed quiet. It let him stare at the ground - digesting the world around him. He could see Death Eaters on the ground - dead or unconscious as a few wizards Draco didn't recognized tied them up or levitated the bodies away. Hermione's hand kept him grounded as he saw the faces and-

"Sadie." He whispered, voice catching. He hadn't even seen her properly before the fighting started. Now she laid lifelessly on the ground - eyes blown wide as one of the wizards calmly lifted her up as Draco felt bile rising in his throat. Hermione's fingers dug into more.

"I know," she whispered, "I know-"

"DAPHNE!" A voice screamed and Draco looked up to see Luna and Ginny desperately working in tandem to drag Astoria Greengrass away from a pile of collapsed pillars, "Let me go - _let me go_ \- I need to get her out! I need to get her out-"

Draco needed to sit down. It was too much. It was too much and what the Hell? They took every precaution. What was happening? He couldn't breathe. He couldn't-

"Draco," Hermione tried again, leading him forward, "We have to keep moving. We're so close. Almost all the Death Eaters are gone-"

"But we're losing," Draco said numbly, "We're losing."

"No, we're not," Hermione reassured him. Draco stared. They had to be. Look around them. He couldn't really find a way to voice it. Hermione's hands felt like the only real thing in the world. "I know," she continued - like a chant - "It doesn't feel that way, but we're _so close_. Voldemort is fighting now. We have to focus on the snake." She said and Draco's blood went cold.

Of course Voldemort was fighting. He had no choice given that all his reinforcements had failed. If they could just... just... kill the snake...

Draco fell to the ground.

He didn't care anymore.

He wanted to. He _should_. They were at the end of the race, right? The precipice of freedom. Of winning the war. Hermione was here and he should help her. And Ron and Tristam and Zoe and Neville and... and...

He didn't care. He was tired. He was so, so tired. Part of him wanted to just lay back down and not get up. No, not part of him. All of him. He tried to think of Teddy. Gabrielle. They were kids. He had to fight for them, right? The world spun. He could hear Hermione's voice buzzing beside him, but it didn't seem to make any words.

Harry was gone. Andromeda was gone. Sadie was gone. Daphne was gone. Who else? He wouldn't know until the end. He didn't want to know. He had done enough, right? It had all been so much. It's okay if he tapped out now. The others could kill the snake. They didn't need him. He should be _allowed_ to give up. His fingers dug into the stone. It was cold and the only thing that felt like anything at all.

No more. He was done. It was too much.

"What the Hell is this?"

Oh. So he had been hit by a killing curse. Finally. It hadn't even hurt. He hadn't even noticed.

"Harry," he breathed out, but his body refused to do anything else. There was a shimmer and Draco felt Hermione's hand leave him suddenly. He couldn't be sure what was happening around him, but he did feel it when somebody put their hands on either side of his face. "Am I dead?" He asked, a little hopefully.

"You better not be," Harry told him with a slight shake of his head, "Draco, what are you doing?"

"Done," he answered Harry's...ghost? He couldn't really tell. "I'm done. It's done. Done." He said firmly.

"No, you're not."

"I am."

"Draco, get the Hell up," Harry's voice said and he felt someone grab the sides of arms, "We cannot be having this conversation in the middle of a goddamn battle," he said and jerked his head. Hermione reappeared, also pulling him up. Weird. Why was she still here? She didn't die too, did she? Draco's heart stopped for a moment. He couldn't take that. He couldn't. "What's happening to him?"

What was _happening_ to him? He broke. He fucking broke and it was too much to put himself back together. Was any of this even real? Maybe it was part of the Bellatrix's torture. Maybe he never left the manor. Maybe this was a game. He honest to God wasn't sure which would be worse - having this be real or having this be all an illusion.

"I'll get him somewhere safe," Hermione's voice said and before Draco could process anything there was more murmuring and suddenly Harry was gone again. Draco blinked. Wait. What? He frowned, letting Hermione pull them wherever they were going as his brain tried to process it. Where did he go? If they were dead why did he just _leave?_ Everything seemed too... too confusing. He didn't... he couldn't...

"What's happening?" He found himself asking. Hermione's face became clearer as she pressed a hand against his cheek. Her forehead was bleeding, eyes blown wide as she worked. Ron was behind her... when had Ron gotten here? Well, he was certainly here now, tending to the wounded behind some of the walls for protection. Draco could make out Tristam cradling his arm close to his body with a string of curses and Luna trying to heal her own ankle.

"Harry's going to face Voldemort."

Draco stared.

Harry was alive. That hadn't been his mind filling in the blanks. Harry was _alive._ How? Draco saw - it didn't matter. Not right now. Harry was alive and -

"The snake," he said, standing back up, "It's still there. We need to kill it."

Hermione tugged him back down.

"I know," she said, "We're working on it. We - Draco, you just had some sort of... something." She said, trying to coax him back down, "You've been through a lot lately. Give yourself a couple minutes-"

"We don't have a couple minutes!" Draco shot back at her incredulously, "I just... got a little tired, but I'm okay now," he promised her. Even if he fell right back into whatever trance he had been before it was better to take advantage of this burst of energy while he still had it. Hermione bit her lip. "I know you want to be with Harry too." He said and glanced up to see Ron had already slipped away - probably to join Harry himself. Hermione opened her mouth, but quickly cut herself off by sighing.

"Fine. Just... please be careful. You can't zone out like that again in the middle of a fight. You're lucky you weren't hurt." She told him sternly and glanced over her shoulder, "Come on." She told him and Draco followed suit as they made their way towards where the fighting appeared to have stopped in the courtyard. At least for the moment. Draco couldn't see Harry, but he _did_ see what people were gathering around.

Voldemort was facing the Mirror of Erised with Neville Longbottom standing directly in front of him, blocking the path between the two. Draco's heart caught in his throat. No. Not Neville. His adrenaline thrummed faster in his chest.

"A Longbottom," Voldemort chuckled. There were several others all pointing their wands at Voldemort, but nobody dared cast the first spell. Draco could see Death Eaters also pointing their wands and most concerning was Voldemort's wand pressed against Neville's forehead. "Step aside, child. You have a place in my new world." He promised. Neville didn't move. It was then that Draco noticed the sorting hat between them.

Draco didn't know why it was there or how it got to be on the grounds in the middle of a battle... but he did know what Neville needed to do. Nagini was by Voldemort's side, tongue flicking out. Draco looked around. How could he tell him? Voldemort was seconds from -

"My lord," a quiet voice spoke and the entire crowd went eerily silent, "I believe I may be of assistance." Severus called as he shoved his way through the crowd. Voldemort's eyes flickered to him before narrowing.

"Is that so?" He asked calmly, "My understanding was that this school was under your protection, Severus. I find it baffling that I have had to fight to win it _back_." He growled and Draco quickly moved as Severus also stepped into the circle, calmly placing himself in front of Neville. Draco's eyes widened. Not after Andromeda. _Not after Andromeda_.

"I know I have failed you, my lord," Severus said and Draco's eyes fell to... Harriet? He almost did a double take as he saw a flash of blue as his snake slithered to the ground from Severus' sleeve (when had she left Draco?) towards the hat. Neville's eyes darted down and watched her move inside. "I was tricked by-"

"Your godson, no doubt," Voldemort said, wryly, "Draco Malfoy did make fools of us all," he said and coldly and tilted his head, "I wonder where he acquired such a strong knowledge of occlumency to shield his treacherous ways from me." He said softly. Severus merely blinked back. "Get. Me. The. Wand." He growled. Severus bowed his head obediently and turned around.

Several things happened at once.

One was that Neville knelt down towards the hat, the next was Voldemort raising his wand, and the third was Severus jerking to the side.

The crowd all seemed to react with equal confusion. There were shouts and screams as the curse Voldemort had intended for Severus hit the Mirror of Erised, sending glass shards flying into the air. Among the endless reflections of the shattered mirror soaring around them was a flash of silver and endless beads of red floating in the air around them. It was hard to tell where the sword actually was until it was too late.

Draco saw Nagini's head hit the ground right as he heard Voldemort scream. There. It was done. All the horcruxes were gone.

He knew what he had to do.

"NEVILLE!" He shouted and held up his hand as he threw himself into the circle, "THE SWORD!"

Neville wasted no time throwing it in the air. God, it would be super embarrassing if Draco went to catch it and ended up killing himself. Using his wand to levitate it so the damn thing did _not_ cut his head off, he grabbed the hilt and spun around to meet red eyes.

"Remember me?" He asked and stepped forward as Voldemort raised his wand. Not before Ginny though.

_"REDUCTO!"_

The world around them erupted. Smoke and dust filled the air as the earth trembled and castle shook with such a force it might have collapsed. Draco used the distraction to hurl himself forward, racing before Voldemort could compose himself. Death Eaters screamed as both sides slammed together while trying to recover. A few managed to raise shields in time, but it was fair to say Ginny had managed to stir an otherwise silent crowd.

Draco swung down.

A blue light intercepted his strike. Voldemort seemed shocked at any rate. The sword of Gryffindor clanged loudly at the force as Draco kicked forward, making him stumble back with a sense of rage. The ground trembled again, but this time it wasn't Ginny who cause it. Voldemort's eyes glowed.

"Fight me like a _wizard_ ," he hissed, "You bloodtraitor filth! Or is your magic so weak you must rely on silly tricks?" He demanded. A shimmer caught Draco's eye as Voldemort hissed the words. Despite the smoke and sweat... he could have sworn he smelled a faint hint of spring.

Draco smiled.

"You want me to fight like a wizard?" He called and tossed the sword to the side so it fell to the ground with a clatter, "Then let's go. Raise your wand fight me, Tom." He said, eyes glittering. Voldemort shook his head in disgust before raising his own. A few people gasped, but Draco raised his hand. "No, no," Draco told them, "Stay out of this. It's our duel." He promised. Voldemort sneered.

"How noble. Do you wish to die with a crowd?" He asked and snapped his fingers, "Stand down." He told the few remaining Death Eaters. "So we may all can watch you die." He spat. Draco chuckled, dipping his head in a sarcastic thank you. Voldemort's eyes narrowed as he shifted in his position - magic buzzing loudly, eager to strike.

"I do have one final warning for you though," Draco said as he waited. Voldemort gave an impatient intake, "You should know that while Harry is a Gryffindor through and through... the sorting house did offer to put him into Slytherin." He said.

"And?" Voldemort asked through clenched teeth, "What do I care if Potter was in Slytherin?"

"Well," Draco told him with a shrug, "You know what they say about Slytherins. They are very sneaky. Around them you should... always watch your back."

A sharp gasp followed. A gutteral choking sound as a high-pitched squelch of blood followed. Draco wasted no time pointing his wand forward as the silver tip of Gryffindor's sword emerged from Voldemort's chest.

" _Expelliarmus!"_ He said and the wand clattered to the ground as the shimmering form behind Voldemort disappeared to reveal Harry throwing his cloak to the ground as he pushed the sword further in. Voldemort fell to his knees, coughing with blood flowing freely to the ground. A few Death Eaters screamed as members from their side gave cried of victory.

"To think," Harry said coolly as Voldemort thrashed. He leaned forward to whisper in his ear, "I thought I needed _magic_ to kill you."

Voldemort gasped. It almost looked like he was melting into the ground. Harry ripped out the sword. It was doused in red and black. Right. Draco had almost forgotten the sword had absorbed all that basilisk venom from their second year. That was probably why it was (supposed to be) so handy in killing horcruxes in the first place. Voldemort gave a scream of pain, but it was cut off by Harry bringing down the sword again. This time, when the sword would have plunged into the back of Voldemort's skull, there was a cracking sound and he collapsed into nothing.

Silence followed.

"Well," Draco said, turning to the group surrounding them, "Anyone want lunch?"

* * *

It was... well, Draco wasn't sure how one really goes about life right after killing the greatest and most evil sorcerer known to mankind. Harry had appeared to have figured their best bet would be to try and shove the grief down and focus on trivial things as he stared blankly at the smoke rising from the castle.

”So,” Draco said, sitting beside him, ”...I have to say it because it's going to bother me if I don't-”

”I know the sword has magical properties, Draco.”

”I see... so your final insult was to berate the Dark Lord with slightly incorrect facts as he died?”

”I’m going to stab you next,” Harry told him, but went silent when Draco put his head on his shoulder. "How are you doing?" He asked gently. Draco gave a low hum as he considered.

"I'm really happy you're alive," he went with and interlaced their fingers. "I probably should have realized sooner. When your patronus came-"

"That wasn't my patronus," Harry interrupted him. Draco paused. Oh... no... "I was a little surprised too, admittedly." Harry said and Draco could _hear_ the grin in his voice. "Though I am _very_ flattered-"

"Damnit," Draco muttered and sighed, "I really thought my patronus was going to be something better..." He trailed off and Harry rolled his eyes before lightly shoving him off. "Are you sure it was mine?" Draco asked, a little suspicious, "I've never been able to make a corporeal before." He said. Harry nodded.

"It was you," he promised and leaned back to better meet his eyes, "It was really good. I'm surprised it held up even afterwards for a little while." He mused. Draco nodded. He hadn't even known such a thing was possible. "What were you thinking of?" He asked and Draco narrowed his eyes. As if he needed to say. Harry must have figured the same, because he laughed. "Well, either way, I'm really proud of you."

Gross. Draco was really too tired to give any theatrics about it though. Besides, it was... a little nice to hear. Maybe.

"I'm proud of us too," he murmured instead and Harry's hand tightened around his. For a moment it seemed like they were going to sit there forever. Just existing as the world around them tried to fix itself. Draco would have been totally fine with that. He just... couldn't. Not right now. Not with Ted here.

Draco wasn't sure when he showed up. Dora had told him quietly that he apparated after the battle had finished up. She had already gone back to be with Teddy, so apparently Draco was left with the aftermath of Andromeda's death. He had been fairly quiet when Draco told him. Shock, probably. Now he just sat on the stone. Staring. Draco should probably be comforting him more, but... he had no idea what to say. Personally, he wouldn't have wanted anyone trying to comfort him after Harry 'died'. He suspected his uncle was the same.

"Um, Mr. Tonks?" Draco glanced up to see Theo shifting back and forth. Other Slytherins stood behind him - all appearing as worn and traumatized as everyone else. Ted gave a long sigh.

"Please," he said, standing up, "Not... not right now." He began, "My wife is-" He began, but was silenced by Theo quietly putting his wand down. Blaise followed. So did Pansy. Tristam. Astoria. Others that Draco didn't recognize.

"Your wife saved us," Pansy told him, putting her hands into her pockets, "I'm... well, I can't say I'm thrilled with owing a mud - _muggleborn_ anything, but... she was a good woman. If you ever need anything..." She trailed off, looking completely at loss at how to continue. Ted swallowed.

"Thank you." He said tightly and Draco stood up, sensing that Ted could only take so much compassion at the moment. He walked over and gently grabbed his elbow, leading him away from the Slytherins as Harry got up to join Ron and Hermione. "Draco-"

"Harry has the Resurrection Stone," Draco cut him off and Ted blinked, "If you want to talk to her. Say goodbye. I don't know what he plans to do with it exactly, but I can get it for you." He promised and Ted nodded faintly.

"Where's your mother?" He asked quietly. Draco paused, a little uncertain if him asking after his mother was a good or bad sign.

"With the Weasleys," he said slowly. It was an odd thing to see them all standing together - his mother looked very out of place and deeply uncomfortable, but she was resolute in offering to stay and make sure everyone was okay. Ted nodded, lips thinning slightly. "I'm sorry," Draco said and twisted his hands, "I... I know you're also upset with me..." He trailed off. Ted gave a weak smile.

"No. Well, yes. I was. My plan was to just schedule days where I yelled at you about saving my life until I died," he informed him and Draco bit back a smile, "But now I see that if I hadn't been for your... stubbornness, that my daughter would be an orphan and grandson without any grandparents at all." He said and ran a hand through his hair. Draco bit his tongue.

"I wish I could have-"

"Shh," Ted cut him off with a shake of his head, "I wouldn't go around with any sort of blaming yourself. I don't think she'll come back as a ghost, but I truly believe she can find a way to haunt us even without that Resurrection Stone," he said solemnly. Draco considered. That was a perfectly valid concern. "If anything, we must live our lives in fear knowing that she can probably see all of our bad decision making and tally it up for whenever we join her." He grimaced.

"You're right," Draco told him, "I guess that means we're going to have to be on our best behavior until we die."

"Tragic, right?"

"Horrifying."

Ted grabbed him and pulled him into a hug. Draco hugged back, burying his face into his shoulder as he tried to hold back the tears threatening to rise... again. Draco hadn't realized he had the ability to cry so much until today.

"We'll be okay," Ted said and clapped the side of his arm, "Though you do know what this means, right?" He asked and Draco tilted his head, "You're going to have to babysit Teddy a lot. She'll be annoyed if you don't."

"I did promise her I would," Draco grumbled, "Though I haven't even _met_ this baby yet so -" He began, but was cut off by someone clearing their throat. He turned. Sure enough, Remus and Dora were there alongside Sirius, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and a few others who were trying to get a good look at the bundle in Dora's arms. The Brazilian witch - Sabelia? The one who got you to speak the truth or whatever - was cooing in complete awe at Teddy from beside Remus.

"You brought the baby to a warzone?" He asked her incredulously. Dora scowled at him.

"I thought you might want to meet him!" Dora said defensively, "There is no war here _now_ and Remus says we all need some cheering up."

"My son is very cute," Remus added with a nod, "He can cheer anyone up." He added. Draco was about to start listing off the impossibilities to such a claim when Dora decided to plop the baby into his arms without any sort of warning what so ever. He tried to lean back (which wasn't a productive tactic when holding something, but whatever).

Jesus _fucking_ Christ. It was so small. Draco didn't care for this shit at all. He turned to Harry.

"Take it." He whispered.

"Him, Draco. Not it."

"Take him." He tried again and then looked back at Dora, "He's beautiful. Great work." He added and the baby shifted in his arms. No, no, no. No. Nope. Stop. Stop moving - _stop_.

His panic was interrupted by the baby opening its (sorry, _his_ ) eyes. Now, Draco knew, in theory, that there was a good chance this baby would end up a metamorphmagus like Dora... they wouldn't be sure right away though. It was hard to tell when babies didn't tend to have a whole lot of features to change. Now that he was a couple months old he might be able to turn his hair a different color or something, but for the most part Draco knew these were the features he would have without the magic.

Which meant it hurt even more that he had Andromeda's eyes.

"Do you like him?" Dora asked, smiling softly when Teddy reached a little hand out to grab at Draco's nose. He made a small choking noise.

"He's alright," he said, voice going a little high and strained. Sabelia tilted her head. When he locked eyes with her, he found his mouth almost moving without permission, "I'm pretty sure I would already die for him." He said without thinking then frowned. Wait a second. "Hey. No fair." He muttered and Teddy made a garbling noise. "You better hope that one goes back to Brazil and doesn't stay friends with your mom because if not... you won't get away with anything." He whispered. Teddy cooed in agreement, "Glad we're on the same page," he said and Ron peered over.

"You want me to take him?" He asked. Draco frowned.

"Why? He's my cousin. Not yours. Back off."

"I think it is safe to say he likes him," Sabelia muttered as Ron gave Draco an offended look. Remus rolled his eyes and held out his arms. Draco carefully returned Teddy.

"You want a turn, Sirius?" He asked and Sirius opened his mouth, "You _cannot_ play that game where you pretend to drop him either. You almost killed Harry like that." He added and Sirius pouted before accepting the baby. Remus turned to Harry, "Lily had to put a cushioning spell on the floor whenever he came over. I lost track of how many times he dropped you."

"That explains a lot," Draco said and clapped a hand on Harry's shoulder, "The mystery is finally solved."

"You shouldn't bully me in front of my parents," Harry informed him. Draco frowned at that only to be silenced when Harry held up a small, black stone. Whoops. "I thought I should let them know I was alive in case they were expecting me or something." He added. Draco almost laughed at that, but was silenced by Sirius giving a loud gasp and rushing over to dump Teddy into Ted's arms.

"Prongs?!" He asked excitedly and grabbed Remus' arm, " _He can talk to Prongs?!"_ He shrieked as he shook Remus a bit. Dora snorted as both men immediately began pestering Harry in an attempt to get the stone. Remus was, of course, listing off how minor the risks of them using the stone really were as Sirius loudly told Harry he would be grounded forever unless he gave the stone over ("I'm your godfather, I think that's allowed even when you're an adult so hand it over-").

"So," Dora said, walking over next to Draco while giving the pair amused eyes, "How are you doing?"

"I think I'm still digesting," Draco told her, "Ask me tomorrow and maybe the fact an entire war is finished will set in." He added and she smiled, lightly bumping his arm. "What about you?" He asked quietly. Dora considered. He didn't need to go more into detail about what. He was thankful Dora seemed to know either way.

"I really want to be angry at her," she finally said and let her eyes fall to where Ted was cooing over Teddy, "But I also know that there were some close calls for me as well... and then Teddy would have been the one angry with me." She said and shook her head, "I don't know. It'll take some time." She mused and then peered over at Draco, "I heard you and Remus talked."

...oh fuck. Draco turned to give her his best innocent look.

"Um, talked?" He repeated. Dora rolled her eyes.

"It's _fine,_ Draco. I know you mean well. Both you and my mom had your opinions even before Remus and I got married," she said. Draco flinched.

"I'm not trying to cause problems. I just don't want you to..." He started, but his words were waved away.

"I know. You don't need to walk on eggshells," she said, running her hand through her hair, "For what it's worth, I know he loves me. He knows I love him too. Neither of us went into this thinking it was going to be a fifty year commitment. Just that it might be a... an until we die sort of commitment," she shrugged, "You know, given the war and all. And who knows? Maybe things won't change in fifty years," she said, sounding oddly amused by the whole thing, "But it isn't the end of the world if it isn't."

Draco stared.

"I don't understand that."

"Hm," Dora said and shrugged, "I'm not surprised. That's because you and Harry are... different," she decided. Draco raised an eyebrow. "Sometimes, you just have to love someone as much as you can for as long as you can and then go and find someone else and love them as much as you can for as long as you can." She told him. Draco grimaced.

"Sounds exhausting."

"Nah," she shook her head, "It's fun. I get to fall in love as many times as I want. And I'm sure at some point I'll find someone who will be my forever person.. or maybe Teddy is my forever person," she said with a fond look towards her son, "But either way... Remus and I are going to have a blast," she told him. Draco shrugged. Whatever. He didn't get it, but he really couldn't see a glimmer of upset on her. "He's going to be a great father." She added softly.

Draco nodded. _That_ was something they could agree on.

"You're a great mom," he offered and Dora grinned at him.

"I'm going to take that kid to so many Weird Sisters concerts. Also, if the DADA position is still open when he's in school I'm definitely going to apply so that we can terrorize the school together," she said with a stoic nod. Draco laughed. That kid was probably going to be the luckiest kid in the world, no doubt. Draco turned to look back at him only to find-

"Is that a magic baby?"

Ted frowned as he held Teddy away slightly. Draco snorted.

"Hi, Jenkins. Glad to see you're okay." He called, raising a hand. The muggle paused in staring at Teddy to offer Draco up a bright grin.

"Hey, kid! Yeah, Trevor had to leave. He said something about basketball and then left. He gave me a gun though!" He added brightly, holding up one of Trevor's magical guns, "I tried to shoot the snake guy a couple times, but it looks like you and your boyfriend took care of it with you're fancy sword," he mused and then turned back to Ted, "Can I see the magic baby?" He asked. Dora peered at him curiously.

"That's my magic baby," she said and glanced at Draco, "You know him?" She asked. Draco nodded. "You trust him with Teddy?" She asked. Draco considered and then nodded again. "Alright then. You can hold him, but you put that thing away." She added with a nod towards the gun. Jenkins immediately set it down before bombarding poor Dora with questions regarding magical babies and why Draco couldn't also change his hair color like she could.

"...and keep in mind he only goes up to, like, my elbow at this point and I just have to stand there as this measly looking child starts shouting on how he was going to kill me," Sirius was saying as Remus impatiently tapped his foot, "And - Regulus stop interrupting - and _Ronald_ over there wasn't helping with his pet Pettigrew all saying how if I wanted Harry then I was going to have go through them. Meanwhile, we have future Mr. Potter Number Two over there talking shit-"

"Don't call me that," Draco called as he leaned over to whisper to Harry, "How long as it been?"

"Three hours."

"Poor Remus," Draco said. Sirius didn't seem to have any intention on handing the stone over as he continued to relay his story to Lily, James, and Regulus with bright eyes and large hand movements.

"I want to see them too, Sirius!" Remus finally said and Sirius pouted, holding the stone closer to his chest.

"Fine," he grumbled and looked over, "I've missed you, Prongs," he added softly. "And - oh, Regulus, do you see mom and dad or are they like... in some sort Hell version of the afterlife?" He asked curiously, "Interesting. Well, if you see them, tell them I'm stopping by to spit on their fucking graves - oh, come _on_. Lily, don't even start with me! Your son is seventeen and swears just like everyone else."

"Not that much!" Harry objected, "Don't tell them bad things about me!" He added, crossing his arms. Sirius raised an eyebrow at him. "I don't even swear that much..." Harry grumbled softly as he kicked the ground. Draco watched him for a moment, vaguely amused before looking back up at his cousin.

"He doesn't even swear that much. Stop giving him shit, Sirius." He said and Remus managed to snatch the stone from Sirius' hand before he could reply. There was a cry of outrage, but Sirius didn't try to swipe it back as Remus brightened considerably.

"James," he beamed and took a long breath to steady himself, "Hi, Lily." He said softly and then nodded at two other spaces of the air, "Mom. Dad." He greeted and ran a hand through his hair, "I have so much I have to tell you. First of all, your son is amazing." He added with a nod towards Harry who flushed. "He produced a fully corporeal patronus at _thirteen_... Uh huh.... yeah, it was brilliant... Thank you, but it wasn't all my teaching, Lils... Well, I wouldn't say that." Remus continued, laughing. Draco watched fondly. He was almost a little disappointed he couldn't use the resurrection stone to see Lily and James himself. He was curious what it would be like to have an actual conversation with them.

"Are you going to keep it?" Draco asked Harry who was still staring at the spaces Remus was addressing. "After we're all done using it?"

"I... don't know," Harry told him softly, "In that story you told me it... well, it wasn't a good idea..." He mused. Draco pursed his lips.

"I'm sure we could regulate it somehow."

"Do _you_ want to keep it?" Harry asked, not bothering to voice the more brooding question. Draco knew who would pop up for him when he picked up that stone. He wasn't sure how he would handle it, but... "We don't have to decide right now." Harry said, squeezing his hand. Draco smiled back at him as Remus cleared his throat, giving them both an apologetic look.

"James says no PDA." He announced. Draco was torn between outrage and amusement as Harry turned a dark red, looking completely at loss on how to deal with a parent embarrassing him from the beyond. Draco snorted.

"Does Mrs. Potter say we can hold hands?" He asked and Remus tilted his head. Then he sighed.

"You got them arguing about it now. I'm not sure how they can still quarrel after being dead this long but they've managed - don't you two have a go at me!" Remus gasped, spinning back around. "If anything I should have a go at _you_. I said your son was amazing and meant it, but he still is stubborn and has a horrible temper. I wonder how _that_ happened." He added. Harry frowned.

"Hey."

"No, no," Draco nodded, "He has a point."

"Lily, you were just as bad - _no!_ I - Sirius, tell Lily that she had a horrible temper in school. Tell her!"

"Yeah, Lils," Sirius said solemnly, "To be frank with you, I'm only brave enough to admit it because I don't have the stone and can't see your face. I still remember when you punched me in the nose after I accidentally stole your essay and handed it in."

There was a long pause.

"You really just pissed her off," Remus said and tried to hand Sirius the stone back, "She's yelling - you wanted it before! I - _Sirius!"_ Remus complained and then turned to drop into Harry's hand. Harry blinked a few times, looking deeply alarmed before blinking.

"...mom?" He tried hesitantly and then his mouth dropped open. He turned to look at Sirius.

"Uh, tell her I'm sorry." Sirius said quietly and Harry gave a nod, looking warily at where Draco guessed his ghost-mom must be. "Hey - Lily? Lily, I'm sorry!" Sirius called, "It was a long time ago. I spent _twelve_ years in Azkaban." He reminded her and Harry nodded.

"That got her to stop," Harry said and rubbed the back of his neck, "Yeah, hi. I have the stone again." He waved. Draco wondered if he should be doing something else while Harry continued the conversation but when he tried to step away, Harry merely grabbed his elbow to pull him back without even pausing in whatever he was saying. Draco rolled his eyes. "....um, during our sixth year," Harry was saying. "I... I don't know!" He added, flushing. Draco tilted his head. "Right. Yeah. Well, I met Ron first... No, him and I didn't date." Harry snorted. Ron looked up from where he was with Hermione and frowned.

"What? Am I not dateable?" He called and then narrowed his eyes, "Wait a minute. Which one of you had a crush on me?" He asked, gesturing between Harry and Draco.

"...neither?" Draco ventured and turned to Harry for confirmation. "Why would we? That would be like having a crush on... I don't know. Your brother or something." He said, wrinkling his nose. Ron's mouth dropped.

"Two of my best mates like blokes and neither of them thought I was worth dating?"

Sirius cackled.

"I'm confused," Draco said, "Did you like one of us?"

"No! Gross!" Ron gagged, "You're both my best friends and I don't even like boys."

"Then why-?"

"I'm not bad looking. I'm funny. What the Hell?" Ron asked, throwing up his hands. He looked down at Hermione. "Can you believe this?" He asked her. Hermione grinned back at him.

"I don't understand it at all myself," she told him solemnly, "I think you're very dateable."

" _Ew_ ," Draco muttered as Harry gave a long suffering sigh.

"Yeah... that's my best friend." Harry said, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Sure. Yeah, I'll tell them," he said amused and turned to Draco, "My mom thinks you seem very nice and have lovely hair," He said and then turned to Ron, "She also says you seem like a catch and that anyone would be lucky to have you." He told him.

"Thank you, Mrs. Potter!" Ron said, looking far too pleased with her analysis.

"Hermione, my mom would like to thank you for being my friend and says she really admires you tenacity and bravery." He said and then paused as Hermione beamed back, flushing slightly. "Uh... Really? I... I don't really - _fine_. Draco, my dad says someday you'll die and he'll be waiting." Harry told him apologetically as Sirius burst into laughter. Draco rolled his eyes, unimpressed.

"Mr. Potter, I think you should be playing nice with me," he said, trying to hide his trepidation. If he can face down Voldemort then he most _certainly_ deal with his boyfriend's ghost-dad, "I spent a lot of time with your son and have access to very embarrassing stories that I think you would enjoy hearing," he shrugged. Harry's mouth dropped over as he hit his arm. "What? You are a bit of a mess, Harry," he said and tapped a finger to his chin. "I mean, I _could_ go the funniest route and say how you thought a threesome was achieved after you kissed three different people-"

"Alright, I think we're done here."

"Aw," Sirius chuckled as he walked over to ruffle Harry's hair fondly, "Don't be mean to him over that. What was he? Twelve? How would he know?" He asked and Harry looked at Draco with narrowed eyes. Draco stared back. Harry hadn't dropped the stone yet so his parents were probably still there... and Draco didn't really want to embarrass him front of _everyone_ when they just won a war. There was trauma to deal with. It would be so immature.

Ha. Just kidding.

"Twelve? No. He was sixteen."

" _Fuck_ you!" Harry growled as Sirius made a noise kind of like a dying goose before collapsing to the ground, almost pulling Harry down with him.

_"Sixteen?!"_

"Sirius!" Harry complained and glowered at Draco, "You're going to regret that." He warned lowly. Draco gave a feral grin in return.

"Is that a promise?"

"For the love of - you know what? It's your turn with the stone," he decided and turned back the empty space, "I am so sorry. Just... we can maybe talk a bit later without the idiots in my life around... and when Sirius stops dying." He added dryly to where his godfather was cackling so hard that Remus had to kneel down and remind him to breathe. "I... please, don't do this to me." Harry whispered closing his eyes. "Are you _trying_ to make up for the seventeen years of embarrassing me that you missed out on?" He asked and then paused, "...okay, sure. Might as well at this point." He grumbled and lightly kicked Sirius. "My dad says you should have had the threesome stuff covered and you're not allowed to laugh when it's your fault that I didn't know."

Sirius gasped and sat up, laughter gone immediately.

"I _did!_ Granted, I didn't think to explain that in graphic detail, but we had a _lovely_ discussion. I told him about that time in Diagon Alley in the potions sections of Flourish and Blotts-"

"IT IS DRACO'S TURN TO HAVE THE STONE!" Harry shouted, silencing them all. Draco grinned. He could only _imagine_ what Harry's life would have been if this had been his day to day chaos. He might not have been able to handle facing down Voldemort... but he _could_ maybe learn to navigate every social situation imaginable. Giving one last flustered goodbye to his parents, Harry dropped the stone in Draco's hand before glowering at everyone. "...are you going to be okay?" He asked, ire draining the second Draco looked down at the stone.

"Yeah," he nodded and swallowed, "I'm... I'm ready." He decided and Harry smiled gently, "Go yell at Sirius. I can handle this." He promised and paused. The stone felt strangely cool in his hand. He took one last deep breath before glancing over at where Hermione was watching him. She smiled warmly and nodded. Draco returned it, using it push forward. He turned to stone. Once. Twice. Three times.

"Hello, Draco."

When Draco looked back up there were three figures in front of him. He recognized two... His father was donned in his best robes and face once again full and proud as Draco had remembered it as a child. Andromeda stood next to him, looking younger than Draco remembered ever seeing her. She might have been only a few years older than him. He could see Dora's face much more clearly in hers. He still recognized her smile as she beamed at him. The last woman was...

He tilted his head, a bit confused as he tried to place her. Her hair was a silver blonde, falling past her shoulders with striking gray eyes and-

"Cassi?" He asked and she smiled, "I... you're... older." He said, gesturing her up and down. She had been nine when she died. Now she looked like she was maybe around Dora or Fleur's age.

"This is how old I would have been," she shrugged, "I didn't really want to walk around as a creepy kid _forever,"_ she told him. Draco gave something between a laugh and a scoff at that. There was a hard knot in his throat. He couldn't seem to push it down.

"I... I'm sorry," he said, daring another glance at Andromeda, "And... you gave up so much for me..." He managed, eyes flicking to his father. "I'm sorry. I didn't-" He began and the words left him. A hand touched his back and he turned to see his mother standing behind him. He gave her a shaky smile, "I'm talking to father," he told her. She nodded. "Andromeda and Cassi are here too." He added.

Narcissa paused at that, but did nothing more than grab his free hand.

"Draco?" His father said and he turned back, "Tell her I said thank you." He ordered and Draco frowned. Thank you? For what? He tilted his head, but didn't argue as he glanced back at his mother.

"He says thank you," he told her quietly and Narcissa flinched, "I... what's wrong?" He asked and held out his hand, "Do you want to speak to him?" He asked, but she only closed his hand back around the stone, "Mother-"

"Leave her be," his father interrupted with a small grimace, "She's doing the best she can." He said evenly. Draco stared. What did he mean...? Why would-

Oh.

Draco turned back to his mother. Her eyes were fixed on the ground.

"You blew up the mansion, didn't you?" He asked her quietly. Slowly, her eyes lifted to his. "Was... was father still alive when you did it?" He asked.

It made sense. If he had already lost his mind... well, Draco knew his parents pretty well despite everything. His father would rather be dead than a madman. His mother would have known that. Nodding to himself, he squeezed her hand tightly. He thought about asking her if she had anything to say in return, but decided against it. If she wanted to see them she would ask. Instead he turned back to where the three figures were waiting patiently.

"I don't know what to say," he admitted. It was strange, he decided. There was so much he thought he would have wanted to say to each of them. To ask... but now that the opportunity had arrived he found the words were fluttering in the wind. Distant and gone before he could reach for them. "Thank you," he went with, "For... everything you've done for me. I'm not sure I've always deserved what you've all given me." He admitted.

Ron's head spun towards him.

"I'm not - this doesn't concern you," he said with exasperation, "Go make gross eyes at your girlfriend." He instructed. Ron stared him down. "I'll keep the self-deprecation to a minimum," he promised. That seemed to quell his obnoxious friend instinct because he did go back to giving Hermione gross eyes as she played a game of peek-a-boo with Teddy. "Sorry about him."

"A Weasley," his father said shaking his head, "I still can't believe it... Indebted to a _Weasley_. There is a certain irony to that, isn't there?"

"How you can still be so condescending when you're _dead_ is beyond me," Andromeda said, shaking her head before Draco could reply, "Not to mention your side lost the war-"

"Nonsense. My son and wife were on the winning side. Therefore I died on the winning side."

"I'm sorry," Andromeda frowned, "Do you think your one good deed cancels out the nightmare you've been since birth?"

Lucius stared at her. Then turned back to Draco.

"I knew you would have to endure hardships when leaving our household, but I had no idea the amount of _torment-"_

"Hey," Harry said, unwittingly cutting off what would have been a very loud argument. "Hello, Mrs. Malfoy," he added quickly when he noticed Narcissa by Draco's side. "I need to thank you for not giving me away in the forest. I thought for a moment..." He trailed off. Draco watched warily as his mother's eyes trailed over him curiously before looking at Draco.

"You're welcome," she finally answered, "I believe it was owed."

...yeah. Draco was going to have to work hard to get that relationship less awkward.

"Is your father also threatening me from the beyond?" Harry asked lightly and Draco scoffed.

"Why would I need to?" Lucius commented, "Narcissa is still alive... and arguably worse than me." He added thoughtfully. Draco raised an eyebrow at that.

"You think so?" He asked, a little curious. His father didn't often bow out of competitions like that. Even if the title was 'worse'. Andromeda made a comment under her breath at that. Cassi laughed.

"I would get him thrown in Azkaban or maybe get the Daily Prophet to cause him headaches until his dying days. Perhaps send someone to jinx him if I'm feeling particularly venomous," he mused, "But your mother would kill him." He said with such surety that it honestly made Draco a little uncomfortable. He turned to Harry.

"Don't piss my mother off," He said lowly and Harry gave him a startled look, "I'll explain later." He added and Cassi peered over, walking so she directly in front of an oblivious Harry.

"He's cute," she decided and Draco grinned.

"Most of the time. Sometimes he's annoying."

"Who is?" Harry asked and Draco's smile widened. Cassi's eyes glimmered with amusement.

"Is his hair normally like that or is that his special war look?" He asked. Draco threw up his hands.

" _Right?_ I've been saying for years it's a disaster! Not to mention the-"

"Glasses!" Cassi agreed, "You would think they would have something for that, wouldn't they? Eyesight spells aren't a thing yet?"

"Neville and I made a potion for it," Draco said eagerly and decided immediately that they had to find a way to keep the stone in their lives. Not forever. Just... a little bit. Maybe they would make a rule that they could only use it once a year or something. Harry rolled his eyes, but didn't complain when Draco kept talking. It was only when he noticed the sun beginning to sink down that he remembered he wasn't the only one who still wanted to use the stone.

"We'll see each other again," he said, a little uncertain. Andromeda smiled at him.

"We will," she agreed and reached out as if to touch his cheek. It was strange... she wasn't quite a ghost, but not quite solid either. He felt a tinge of regret when she couldn't feel her touch, "Until then... Be good." She warned. Draco laughed.

"No promises."

"I was afraid you'd say that," she sighed and then glanced at Harry, "Take care of one another then. All of them."

Draco nodded.

"That I can promise," he told her softly and took a steadying breath. Part of him was almost afraid. He didn't want them to go. He glanced back up at them... then, with one last smile, rolled the stone over again. There was a flicker and then there was nothing but the ground and sky in front of him. Harry reached over to put a hand on his arm. "I'm okay," he told him and then looked around, "I need to find someone though..." He added, looking around. Harry nodded. He didn't look surprised. He probably knew where Draco was going.

"Tell him I said hi... Or actually, maybe don't," he mused, "I think he's a little sad that I lived."

"That is _not_ true," Draco told him and leaned in to kiss him. Harry didn't bother to argue with him... though that was probably due to kissing and not that he agreed in any way, shape, or form. "I vote after this we sneak away for a year. That way we can avoid any reporters or people trying to force us to see mind healers or paparazzi." He told him when they parted. Harry hummed.

"I'm not entirely opposed... though I will be the one forcing you to see a mind healer."

"Fine. I'm bringing Ron then." Draco grumbled, "He can at least make me breakfast everyday." He reasoned and Harry shoved him back slightly.

"You know I can cook too, right? I've been doing it since I was four."

"I've never tasted it to know," Draco told him and grinned at the outraged look at Harry's face, "I'll let you prove yourself worthy of joining me on my hiatus later. Maybe I can overlook your bad decorum for other qualifications." He said and ducked away before Harry could jinx him. He spun around looking for - ah, there she was. "Do you need anything?" He asked, pulling his mother to the side. "It worries me how little you're saying." He told her.

"I'll be fine, Draco. I just-" his mother started, but paused when she saw Ted heading over with Teddy in hand. Draco shook his head. This baby really was the backbone of the war aftermath. It was a good thing he seemed to like the attention. "Is this Andromeda's grandson?" She asked and Ted scowled at her as he stopped walking.

"And mine." He said a bit defensively and Draco shot him a look when his mother looked away, "Sorry," he said quickly, "I... sorry," he sighed and then looked Narcissa over warily. Draco waited - a little unsure if he was going to have to play peacemaker or not. "I heard you helped Andromeda fight Bellatrix." Ted finally said. Narcissa nodded. Ted stared back. "Do you want to hold him?" He said after a moment, "It's been awhile since I've dealt with a baby." He told her.

"It's been awhile since I've dealt with one as well," his mother said with an amused glance towards Draco. Nevertheless, she held out her arms to accept the bundle. Draco watched as her eyes immediately softened, tapping Teddy's nose lightly with her index finger. Teddy garbled in response. Narcissa laughed. "How long do you think it'll be before I get grandchildren?" She asked lightly, turning to Draco. He stared at her.

"I - I'm sorry, what?"

"Hm. I figured it would be awhile," she said and Draco decided right then that was his cue to leave and to leave _fast_. Maybe he would forget trying to form any sort of relationship between her and Harry... they didn't need to be around each other that much. Especially if children was going to end up being a common topic.

Bidding his mother and Ted a slightly terrified goodbye, Draco trekked over the grounds - making his way over ruins and through wades of people. McGonagall was in the middle of trying to right some of the columns while Blaise and Theo picked up the fallen glass from the Mirror of Erised.

"I don't quite get what you're whole thing was with the mirror," Blaise was saying, "We could have pretended to hide the stupid wand in any mirror. Why were you so set on this one?" He asked as Theo looked thoughtfully at one of the pieces of shattered glass.

"I don't think it would have worked with any mirror. Besides, I... kind of wanted to know what I saw in it," Theo admitted, almost too lowly to hear. Blaise gave him a perplexed look. "What?"

"Wanted to know what you _saw?_ It's a mirror, Nott. It shows your reflection."

Theo stared.

"You... only saw yourself in the mirror?" Theo asked, sounding deeply unimpressed. "I knew you were vain, Blaise, but my God-"

"That's how a mirror works! Besides, it wasn't _just_ me. You were there too," Blaise said offhandedly. Theo dropped the piece of glass. "What? You were standing beside me when we looked into it, you weirdo." He said. Draco bit back a grin as he marched past. Normally, he would _love_ to be a fly on the wall for a conversation as fun as that, but he had other priorities at the moment.

Sure enough, he got to a tree on the outskirts of town to find Severus staring with that same foreboding look he almost always got when he was deep in thought. Draco moved up next to him.

"So," he began and risked a glance at him. Severus didn't respond, "I have the Resurrection Stone. You can talk to Lily." He offered. Severus shook his head.

"She doesn't want to see me," he said. Draco frowned. Ah. Well. That was a bit awkward. Draco nodded.

"Right," he said and shoved his hands in his pockets. He waited a few minutes before speaking again, "Can I ask why?" He asked and Severus sighed before turning to him questioningly. "I just... you liked her. I know you must have grown up with her even before Hogwarts, but... why did you like her so much? Love her?" He rectified because Draco was absolutely certain that was what it was. Severus had loved that woman... He wondered if Harry knew. Severus stared back at him.

Draco was like... ninety-five percent sure he wasn't going to answer.

"Because she offered me a chance to be a good person," he finally said, startling Draco. "She did that often. With me. With Potter." He tacked on bitterly. "I suppose the difference between us in the end was that he took that chance while I didn't." He said and Draco slowly nodded. He supposed he could see that. It had been a similar situation with Draco after all.

"You're a good person," Draco said and then shrugged, "Most of the time." He added and looked down at the stone in his hand, "Probably for the best. She sounds like she had a temper and... well, you... kind of were a jackass to her son at first." He added and Severus gave a scoff. "If she was alive and you met Harry... how would that have gone?"

"Howlers," Severus said immediately, "I would have said something and she would have sent me howlers and it would have been a mess." He said with a small shake of his head. Draco bit back a smile. The idea of Lily being alive to keep everyone from being mean to Harry was a fun one to consider. "I thought I would have died today," Severus added, sounding perplexed. "I hadn't considered what surviving would be."

Draco nodded.

"Well," he said and rubbed the side of his arm, "Now that everyone knows everything you've done... I can promise you that the Weasleys will be coming to bother you," he told him and Severus fixed alarmed eyes on him, "Yeah, I can't save you there. Also, the Delacours too," he mused, tapping his fingers absently against his thigh, "It's going to be a lot of forced social interaction."

"Fantastic." Severus sighed and Draco laughed. He was about alleviate some of the dread about being forcibly taken in by all these good-doers and assure him that he still had his mother for all his shit-talking needs when there was a snap from behind them. He turned - a little puzzled to see two wizards in a set of ministry robes looking back at them with their wands out.

No freaking way. So soon?

"Severus Snape and Draco Malfoy. You are both under arrest," the wizard to the right greeted. Draco chuckled. This would be fun. "Please set down your wands and put your hands where we can see them."

Severus glanced over at him.

"Now that everyone knows what I've done, hm?" He asked before tossing his wand down. Draco rolled his eyes.

"This is quick," he noted to the ministry workers, "Did you hear Voldemort died and rushed out to do the job you've been avoiding for the past year or so?"

"My understanding was the Ministry of Magic was taken over by Death Eaters," Severus added, sneering as he looked the two over with an air of disgust.

"Oh, that too," Draco said and took out his own wand, "This is just a guess... but you haven't been too involved in the war, have you? Definitely didn't stop by for this fun little fight." He added with a nod towards the smouldering remains. He didn't get an answer. Not that it mattered. Draco had expected something like this to happen... he might even been convicted. His hands weren't entirely clean.

Still, Harry would probably eat them alive when he found out. The thought made Draco smile as he tossed his wand down and held up his hands. One of the wizards moved over and jerked both of their sleeves down, revealing their Dark Marks.

"Just as we suspected," he told his partner, "Death Eaters. Both of them."

"Your bureaucratic dedication is astounding," Draco told him, "Tell me, do I get a trial? And if so, exactly how many witnesses am I allowed?" He asked. Severus shook his head at him in exasperation. What? It sounded hilariously chaotic. He could have Fleur yelling in French with the Chosen One losing his temper and complaining about how much he hated the government like the old man he secretly was and - _Sirius_. Oh, Sirius would be _pissed._

"You will be allowed a defense," the other wizard said as the other tapped their wrists so a pair of handcuffs materialized on them. Draco raised an eyebrow. Whatever that meant... "We will be asking for a confession and testimony." He added. Draco nodded stoically.

"Wonderful," he said and then grinned, "Hello, Ginny!" He added when he saw a pair also moving towards them, "Luna. Neville." He greeted. The three waved and then did a double take when they saw the handcuffs. Neville swore and marched over.

"What do you think you're doing?" He demanded as the pair continued to work by confining Draco's magic, "You can't arrest them-"

"They're Death Eaters, Mr...?"

"Longbottom."

"Mr. Longbottom. We received a tip about You-Know-Who's defeat and have come down to regain the remaining of his followers."

"Um, sure, but they're on our sides, you morons," Ginny said with a shake of her head, "People are going to be pretty upset if you take them in." She said and then pointed a finger at Draco, "Stop enjoying this. Harry is going to be so mad." She told him. Draco laughed. Yeah. Exactly. He couldn't wait to see his boyfriend punch one of these two in the face.

"It's part of the job, miss," one of the wizards told her calmly and Draco laughed louder at that. "Are you two ready?" He asked, shooting Draco an irritated look. Severus only sighed again as his answer, though there was a glimmer of trouble in his eyes.

"...Davis," the other said, looking at Ginny uncertainly, "Maybe we should hear their testimony here first. Just in case."

"Don't let them con you-"

"I'm so glad you asked," Draco jumped in with a wink at where Neville was pinching the bridge of his nose, "I guess you can say it all started when I was eleven," he told them and the one scowled back at him. "You know, it definitely started when I was eleven. Allow me to set the scene of my school sorting:

"Hogwarts wasn’t as grand as I had expected. I remember thinking that perhaps my father was right to have wanted me in Durmstrang. I mean, it was too late now. Hogwarts was where my parents and grandparents went. If it was good enough for them, then it should be good enough for me… given that Dumbledore didn’t muddy the school's reputation more than he already had, of course. Hannah Abbott was sorted first. I knew she would be Hufflepuff. You can kind of just tell, you know? Anyways..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this is a magical world, but like... there was a sword... and the main villain DIDN'T get stabbed? Nonsense.
> 
> Draco's trial will 100% written about in history books. I can't even fully imagine how chaotic and hilarious it would be. You might even have Jenkins somehow showing up in the middle of the trial for some reason. Sirius would object to everything even though he's not the lawyer. Draco's actual lawyer would be some fancy guy from France who keeps getting annoyed by Remus trying to check over his work to make sure it's up to par. Gabrielle would appear to say she should also be on trial for all the people she stabbed during the war. Theo would dramatically monologue during his time on the witness stand. Hermione and Ron are going to go on a rampage about how disrespectful it is that they're even here with all Draco's done. Neville starts off the same, but somewhere down the line he also uses the Wizengamot as a therapy session. Draco ends up being let go after an hour because the jury can't take anymore. They don't even bother with Snape when they see everyone asking when that trial is and just let him go too lol. 
> 
> I did decide to save Snape at the last minute. He was supposed to die during that scene with Neville, but I kind of wanted him to have a chance to live outside of Lily if that makes sense. I'm so used to not liking him that I forgot he wasn't the worst here lol.
> 
> Anywho! EPILOGUE! It's gonna be long and cute and I'm excited for you guys to see it! Thanks for making it this far <3 I know this is ridiculously long so like... thank you. You guys are the best.


	20. Year...Twelve? (In Which Five Years Pass and We Say Goodbye)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can't believe we're ending the fic right as the year is about to end... didn't plan it that way, but I do enjoy it.
> 
> Thank you all one last time for all your comments and kudos and bookmarks ❤️. This has been (by far) my longest fic ever (I think the second longest is 182,000 words and that one is just one-shots... then my second-longest actual story is 108,000 so this by FAR exceeds both lol) and you guys made it so easy to make me want to write more. I'm currently in a bit of writing rut right now, but hopefully come 2021 I'll be back with new content... maybe even some more HP content!
> 
> idk. Love you all and thanks for reading ❤️

” _Sixteen_?!?”

”No!”

"Sixteen inches? By next week?!"

”Professor, you can't be serious-”

”It’s too much work!”

”Too much?” Harry’s voice asked, astounded. The entire classroom groaned. Draco peered inside, biting back a grin as he did so, ”No, Mr. Patterson, a _war_ is too much work.” He said gravely and Draco rolled his eyes as a grumble fell over the classroom. Draco got the feeling this wasn't the first time Harry had gotten his students to stop complaining about homework by bringing up the war.

All that nonsense the Daily Prophet published about him being modest was _rubbish_.

”As if you did anything!” Draco called, walking into the room. Harry’s mouth dropped in greeting, ”Don't believe a word he says. I did all the heavy lifting," he informed the group gravely. Whispers flew across the classroom. In the back, he could see a few Beaxbatons uniforms (Fleur had made an exchange program for all the magical schools years ago) and - yep. Gabrielle Delacour was among them. She didn't seem to notice Draco given that she was fluttering her eyelashes at a boy who was smiling dreamily at her.

"I have your chocolate frog card," someone said and Draco glanced down.

"Do you?" He asked and snapped his fingers, "Hey! Hufflepuff in the back!" He called, "You're not here to stare at Beaxbatons students. Keep your eyes up here." He said and turned to Harry, "You let this happen?"

"She's seventeen, Draco."

"You do remember what _we_ were like at seventeen, right?" He asked dryly. Harry paused at that.

"You were fighting a war," one student supplied helpfully at the front of the room. Draco turned. Oh. Right. They were here. Harry nodded and pointed at the boy who had spoken.

"Ten points to Ravenclaw."

Ugh. Draco could not believe he married one of _those_ professors.

"Excuse me?" Another Hufflepuff asked, raising her hand eagerly, "Professor Potter won't tell us about your wedding and Professor Nott says we get extra credit if we write a paper about it so can you _please_ tell us what happened? I'm failing History of Magic." She added. Draco stared. He was pretty sure nothing about that sentence made sense so he turned back to stare blankly at Harry. He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Binns is on vacation. I don't know why a ghost needs a vacation, but Theo is filling in and making my life Hell," he informed him darkly. Oh... yeah, that made sense. Draco turned back, "Last week he assigned them all different readings on your trial-"

"Professor Nott showed us a pensieve memory of it!" Someone from the back shouted eagerly, "It was _brilliant_. Nobody really believed him when he said Harry Potter got arrested," he added offhandedly and Draco grinned when Harry took a long breath.

"It's true," Draco said, folding his arms against his chest, "He was held in contempt of the court. It was quite the fuss for them to do it literally a month after he killed Voldemort," he said fondly. _That_ had not gone over well. The public backlash had been even more severe than it already was. It had made Draco's trial ridiculously easy. "You know, I'm the reason for court law put in place in 1999," he added.

"The one that allows only one witness into the court room at a time?"

"I had many witnesses," Draco said gravelly, "They were all very passionate as well," he said and Gabrielle gave him a dazzling grin. He wondered if anyone in this room knew that one of his passionate witnesses was in their class. He shook his head, "Nevermind that though - what do you need to know about the wedding?" He asked and Harry glanced up from where he was beginning to erase the board behind him.

"Draco!"

"What? The poor girl is failing," Draco snorted and leaned back on Harry's desk at the front of the classroom, "Honestly, the whole 'mystery' behind it is kind of poppycock. We weren't even technically 'missing' for that year," he added with air quotes. A few people hurriedly reached for parchment in an attempt to start writing, "We were eighteen and went back for our final year at Hogwarts since we kind of missed it with the war or whatever," he said, waving the words away, "And it was like... three in the morning, I think-"

"What were you doing up at three in the morning?" Gabrielle called, raising a silver eyebrow. Draco scowled at her.

" _Studying,"_ he told her and Gabrielle shook her head at him, "Anyways, I forget who said it-"

"I did."

"It might have been Harry or me. Not that it matters-"

"It was me."

"No matter who it was, we decided we wanted to go get married."

"Okay," Harry interrupted, "No. That's not even - you insist on telling this story and then you _lie,"_ Harry grumbled and turned to his students looking half-annoyed and half-defeated, "We had N.E.W.Ts coming up and Draco here said he would rather do anything else other than study for them. I said we should go get married instead and _he_ said I wouldn't actually ditch school and go get married. Obviously, I couldn't let that accusation stand so we left school and got married. There. Story done." He said. A few students frowned at one another, muttering in confusion.

"But nobody saw you for a year afterwards?"

"Yeah," Draco agreed, "We went on a honeymoon and then decided to just keep doing that until we had no money left. It was nice. Nobody bothered us. I bet we could have done it for another ten years," he mused wistfully, "Of course, we had made the mistake of writing our family and those traitors hunted us down and made us come back." He grumbled. Harry shook his head.

"It wasn't like we didn't visit," he added on, a bit indignantly, "We even brought Teddy with us for a couple weeks. Hermione just got annoyed that we missed our exams," he said, shaking his head. "Sirius was the only one we should have trusted." He added and Draco gave a hum of agreement. "So, yeah. There you go. Maybe the Ministry can stop labeling it as one of the biggest unsolved cases in the country now." He grumbled. Another student raised their hand.

"Professor Nott also assigned us a study guide. I have no idea if some of these answers are right." She said. Harry pressed his hands together as if praying and took a deep breath. Draco smiled at the ground. Blaise had written Draco to warn him that Theo was at Hogwarts this year and that his husband had every intention of annoying _his_ husband... Draco just didn't realize how successful Theo had been. "Like, this one says, 'True or False: Draco Malfoy lowered his standards the more he dated'. I put false at first, but then he marked it wrong."

"McGonagall said she was going to make him stop doing that," Harry grumbled, shooting a dark look at the paper the girl was reading off of, "Even if that _was_ true - which it isn't - then it wouldn't be relevant to the war. Your history teacher is a scam artist." He said and Draco hit his arm, "What? It's true. He's just mad we didn't make him Andi's godfather-"

As if on cue, the door slammed open.

"DADDY!" A voice shrieked and Draco turned to see a flash of pink as he leg was attacked. A small face looked up at him, "Teddy pulled a flower out of my hair."

"NO, I DIDN'T!" Someone yelled back and Draco stared at the door to see five-year-old Teddy Lupin looking outraged, "You're a _liar!"_

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am-"

"Alright," Draco said and picked up his daughter, "It's fine. I can fix your hair," he said and Andi scowled over his shoulder at where Teddy was glowering back at her. Harry snorted, gaining Andi's attention as she seemed to realize she was in the midst of other people. Her face brightened when she saw Gabrielle as she gave a small wave.

"I want to teach too," she said and wiggled out of Draco's grip. He sighed, watching as she took her place in front of Harry, "Hi. My name is Andi, but today you can call me Professor Ando-reada."

"Andromeda," Harry told her.

"Arrow-meda."

"Andromeda."

"Andro- you can call me Professor Andi," she said, switching tracks. Teddy rushed over to join in.

"And I'm Professor Edward!" He added brightly. Right. Draco regretted coming here. He should have just waited until Harry was finished with class to keep these poor souls away from the chaos that was their lives. Not that anyone looked too put out by random children coming along and trying to hijack the class. A Hufflepuff raised his hand.

"Professor Andi, do we _really_ have to write a sixteen-inch essay on boggarts right before Christmas?" He asked and Harry rolled his eyes, "That seems a bit cruel and you look like you're a very nice professor." He tried. Andi considered, tapping a finger to her lips as she thought with what Draco assumed was all of her six-year-old wisdom.

"No, you don't have to do it," she decided and the class cheered. Teddy puffed out his chest.

"Because it is going to be _twenty inches!"_ He shouted and the cheers changed to boos. Teddy frowned at them. "Stop it. Uncle Harry, make them stop." He grumbled, scowling at the class. Andi grinned.

"They like me better."

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

"Do not-"

"Teddy, where is your mom?" Draco asked and Teddy paused to grin at him. It was a truly terrifying thing - to have a child smile at you like that. Even Harry leaned away.

"Which mom?" He asked sweetly. Draco stared. Then he turned to Harry. Then to Gabrielle. Then back to Teddy. Was this a joke? Before he could even think of a response to that, someone cleared their throat.

"Wait, so are we really not writing the essay?"

“I - Jenkins?” Draco asked, a little bewildered to see a familiar face in the back of the classroom. Jenkins raised a hand in greeting. ”What are you doing here?”

”Trying to learn, ” Jenkins informed him stoically. ”I told McGonagall it was hard to get a job as a felon in the muggle world and she said I could be the muggle studies professor, but I have to take some courses first - even if I can't do magic.” he shrugged. Harry shot him a wary look.

”He is my... Most dedicated student.” 

”You know, Professor Potter, I've been asking around and most of the other professors have a high level of qualifications to teach here. Not everyone gets the job through nepotism.” He said calmly and Draco’s mouth fell open before cackling loudly.

”Seriously?” Harry asked, throwing up his hands, ”I went to school here too, you know! And you're also basically getting this job through nepotism-”

”There are secondary education systems in the muggle world, ” Jenkins informed him with a click of his tongue, ”Where did you get your teaching degree from?”

Draco had forgotten how fond he was of this man.

”Its been a while since we’ve gotten dinner. You want to come over later?” Draco asked Jenkins as Harry hit his arm, "What?" He asked and then leaned over to scoop up Andi, "We should be going. I honestly just wanted to remind you not to take too long - and hey," Draco added to the class, "Remember that the Great Hall is closed today. According to Headmistress McGonagall if you're caught there then you get detention for a month," he told the students who all grumbled. "Jenkins, I'm sure Hermione and Ron would be very pleased if you attended." He added as an afterthought. Jenkins gave a gracious nod in return. "Alright, we're going to go fix the hair crisis - bye everyone!" He called, grabbing Teddy's hand to also lead him out as everyone returned his farewell.

Andi absently played with Draco's hair.

"Are Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione going to have kids?" She asked suddenly when they went out into the corridor. Draco pulled back to give her a baffled look.

"That's up to them, but I think they probably will," he mused. Andi wrinkled her nose. "Why?" Draco laughed as he put her down to examine her hair. It actually wasn't that bad. He flicked his wand and the missing flower zipped back into place. Andi gave Teddy a wary glance at where he was changing his nose into a beak.

"Kids are gross," she decided and then fixed him with narrowed eyes, "Grandma says _you_ might have another kid."

Damnit. Grandma was a goddamn tattletale. Teddy gasped.

"You _are?"_

"We don't know yet," Draco said quickly and Andi huffed, "And if we do it'll be-"

"You can't name it Albus!" Andi said loudly. Draco frowned, "I heard Uncle Sev say you might name it Albus and my name starts with an A so the baby's name can't start with an A too. You can't do that. You can't." Andi told him with an edge of anxiety. Teddy frowned, considering this logic for a moment.

"You can't name the baby Edward either," he said, "That's my name and I already share with my grandpa so you can't take it." He said. Draco rolled his eyes.

"I can assure you that we are _not_ naming any child of mine Albus," he said and Andi let out a breath of relief, "And I doubt he would be Edward either," he said before spying a woman walking towards them in glittering silver and a dark purple dress. Oh, good. "Mother!" He called, "Could you take them downstairs?" He asked as she practically floated over to kiss him on the cheek. Andi watched her in besotted awe. "And why are you telling Andi about us having another kid?" He tacked on, a little annoyed. Narcissa blinked innocently.

"Oh, are you? _Congratulations,_ Draco-"

"We're adopting again," He told her and shook his head when his mother pouted, "I'm not going to mess around with our bloodline magic, mother. We're going legacy over lineage. Besides, there are plenty of children orphaned in the war-"

"Yes, yes. You're a noble Gryffindor," she grumbled, "I suppose I can stand for it given that you were so successful with the first one," she mused and looked down at Andi with doting eyes, "You're hair looks very pretty, my lady." She said. Draco inwardly rolled his eyes. He wasn't sure why his daughter loved by referred to as if she was a noble from medieval times, but his mother was pretty much the only one who humored her on the matter with complete seriousness. Andi beamed back at her. "Come now. We must prepare the flowers." She said and Andi eagerly grabbed her hand. Teddy reached over to pluck a flower out of her hair again.

" _Stop it!"_ Andi growled at him and reached over to slap his hand away, "I'll bite you." She warned and Teddy paused - looking a bit torn between testing that or simply letting it go. When Draco cleared his throat pointedly he gave one last bright smile before skipping over to grab Narcissa's other hand.

"Is Victoire here yet?" He asked, voice echoing down the hall. Draco snorted and went the opposite direction towards the Great Hall. Guests were beginning to trickle in, some giving Draco bright waves before they oohed at the decorations scouring the the school. McGonagall stood among them, flicking her wand so that a few vines forming over the door righted themselves.

"Mr. Malfoy," she greeted when Draco walked up, "It has been a few weeks since I've seen you," she noted and glanced over her shoulder, "Your husband can be insufferable in your absence, I hope you know," she added and Draco fought back a grin by how exasperated she looked by the mere mention of it, "I do hope Professor Binns returns soon. Him and Nott are... very determined to annoy one another."

"Yes, I hear you have a rather... eclectic staff," Draco decided, "I've been getting updates about Theo, but what has Harry done?" He asked, absolutely positive that Harry would have left out any retaliation he might have thrown back after Theo annoyed him. McGonagall's lips thinned, smoothing out a dark blue dress with a slight shake of her head.

"How long do you have?"

Yeah... that was about what Draco had expected.

"I have to go get ready, but I promise I'll be back for the details of that," Draco told her and gave what he hoped was a reassuring nod before moving past her to get towards a small, inconspicuous room a bit to the side. Draco couldn't remember having ever seen it there, but figured the castle had added more rooms for the event. Sure enough, as he pushed his way inside his trunk and clothes sat by a window with a mirror and some of Harry's things as well.

He paused in front of the mirror. It was... strange these days. To actually recognize himself. He hadn't changed too much since graduating school. The scars were still there on his neck, his hands, his chest, but they felt as familiar as the rest of him. Like he actually knew the person stating back at him. He smiled a bit before turning back to get changed. He only had about ten minutes of peace before the door opened again.

"Hey," Harry said, rushing over as he tried to straighten his dress robes to no prevail, "I'm here. Let class out a bit early," he greeted as he kissed Draco before plucking up a bottle of Sleekeazy. He paused, looked at it, and then immediately handed it to Draco.

Draco hadn't known doing his hair that one time for the Yule Ball meant he was forever cursed to do so for every formal event until the end of time... but here they were.

"Yeah, that reminds me," he said dumping some on his hands, "Why are you assigning sixteen-inch essays? We both know you don't grade papers."

"I do not," Harry agreed, "But McGonagall told me I can't have the class be all practical and needed some written work. Besides, I happen to know someone who _loves_ correcting people..."

"I'm not grading your papers."

"Well, you _should!_ Technically, this is your fault," Harry informed him. Draco yanked his hair in retaliation, "It is! You told me I would hate being an auror because of the paperwork, but failed to mention the grading when proposing your professor suggestion." He said. Draco rolled his eyes.

"Then go off and be an auror."

"...no, I would rather just convince you to grade my papers."

Draco was considering whacking him when the door open to reveal Dora prancing in with a bottle of champagne.

"I don't think it's time for that yet," he snorted and then did a double take, "Unless there is something _else_ we're celebrating?" He asked suspiciously as he tried to peer over at Dora's hand. His cousin frowned.

"I just wanted some alcohol," she told them and popped the bottle, "Don't get me wrong - I am so excited to be here - but it will take forever. I know it will." She said and summoned a glass to pour into as she popped the top off, "Remus and I played a very intense game of Rock, Paper, Scissors to decide which one of us will be keeping Teddy entertained and it was _not_ me," she added and took a long sip.

"Well, we're suspicious," Harry informed her. "Teddy mentioned two moms so..." He shrugged. Draco shoved his head so he was facing forward. Dora groaned.

"I didn't propose," she said, looking half-annoyed and half-amused on the matter, "Teddy just really wanted me to," she sighed and Draco paused, giving her a questioning a look, "So, I don't know if you're familiar with the whole 'my dad can beat up your dad' game that kids tend to have?" She asked and Draco nodded.

"Of course, I loved that game as a kid. Always won." He said and Harry rolled his eyes.

"Can't say I'm familiar." He told them both blandly. Dora shook her head fondly.

"Well, Teddy is a fan because he tells everyone he has four dads now - which is more than any of his friends," she explained and Draco raised an eyebrow, "You two also count because he says Harry is his godfather and that makes you his godfather as well. Apparently that means you can be added to his dad army." She explained. Eh. Fair enough. "The other kids got annoyed and decided to switch it up on him. The game is now 'my mom can beat up your mom'."

"Oh, I can see where this is going."

"He is now on a mission to get Sabelia and I officially married so he can have two moms. Apparently, me being an auror doesn't seal the deal. He needs back-up." She rolled her eyes. Draco snorted. "Don't get me wrong, I am absolutely thinking about marrying her... the problem is I want the proposal to be a surprise and it is _hard_ to do that around someone whose whole thing is making you want to tell the truth." She grumbled.

Draco hummed.

"Well, no rush. You can always just make Hermione or Ginny Teddy's godmother or something. That's what we did," Draco said, "Besides, marriage is the worst."

"I love you too." Harry said and Draco grinned down at him.

"You do remember that I have been married, right?" Dora asked conversationally as she sipped her champagne. Draco pointed a finger at her.

"Exactly. So you remember how it's the worst - oh, stop _pouting,"_ he added to Harry, "I just mean the legal part. Getting you name changed and all that-"

"You - wait, _what?"_ Harry demanded and shoved Draco's hands away, "You made a whole big deal about keeping your name!"

"Oh. Well. I changed it like three months ago." He said and Harry stared. "...I'm not telling you to what."

Harry turned to look Dora dead in the eyes.

"Marriage is not worth it." He told her as the door opened again.

"Is that the attitude to have during a _wedding?"_ Molly asked and Harry immediately mumbled an apology as Draco snickered at him, "Speaking of which, I spoke to Ron, darling. He said to go ahead." She smiled to him. Draco nodded. He knew Ron would agree either way, but it was nice to have confirmation.

"Thanks, Molly,” he said and leaned down to kiss the side of Harry’s head without messing up his rarely respectable hair. ”See you later, Mr. Malfoy,” he said and Harry sighed.

”You can't have changed my name.”

”Sure,” Draco said as be checked his hair in the mirror before following Molly out of the room, ”I can outsmart the Dark Lord, but my talents end with simple office laws,” Draco drawled out and Harry’s mouth opened.

”...you didn't really change my name, right? Draco? Draco, come on,” he complained as Draco winked at him, “Babe, please tell me you didn't-”

"See you, Dora." Draco interrupted and Dora raised her glass as a goodbye. Molly chuckled as the door slammed shut behind them and led them towards the other end of the corridor.

"Babe?" Molly asked and Draco narrowed his eyes, "I just hadn't heard him call you that before!" She told him with a light laugh. He gave a long-suffering sigh in return.

"I don't know where he's picked it up, honestly. I think he only uses it when he's stressed," Draco added as an afterthought. Maybe Draco should give him some slack on the name thing... then again, he _was_ trying to get Draco to grade his papers so he kind of deserved it. Molly reached up to pat his cheek before turning to knock on an oak door that glimmered beside one of the school's portraits who was excitedly squealing in delight at all of the decorations.

"Come in!"

"I'll leave you to it then," Molly told him and Draco nodded his thanks, "Ron said I was only allowed to hug her ten times today so... give her one more for me." She said when Draco put his hand on the handle. He paused.

"You went through all ten already?" He asked aghast, "She's just been getting ready!"

"I have a lot of love to give," Molly told him and considered, "Maybe give her two for me," she decided. Draco gave her an exasperated look, but smiled before steeling his courage and walking into the small room. Sunlight streamed through an open window as familiar golden birds fluttered about like fairytale animals helping Cinderella (a muggle story that Andi rather enjoyed).

“You know, I told you _years_ ago that you should wear white more often, but you never believed me.” Draco said as he leaned against the doorframe. Hermione paused by the mirror to turn and look at him, eyes softening.

“What are you doing back here?” She asked, crossing her arms over her chest, “Shouldn’t you be with Ron?”

“Him and I talked it over,” Draco said, walking over to help fix a few wayward strands of hair, “It wasn’t really fair with your parents still in Australia,” he explained. Hermione looked down. Her memory modification to her parents still hadn’t faded away despite several years of the war passing. It felt brutally unfair. Theo's memory charm had only lasted about a year due to Draco's hesitance, but Hermione's resolve had been resolute when sending them away. It had prompted Neville and Draco to start working on a spell reversal potion that they hadn’t quite perfected yet. If he was lucky then perhaps Draco could get the Grangers’ memories back on track before they had grandchildren. 

“Fair how?”

“Well, you need someone to tell you it is okay to back out. If you need to make a quick get away, I’ll help.” He said, putting his hands on either side of Hermione’s arms to look her over seriously. A smile hinted at her lips. “I’m so serious. You don’t have to do this. You can run. In fact, I encourage this-”

“Ron did not send you in here to tell me this.”

“No, but I’m sure he knew it was a possibility,” Draco grinned. Hermione rolled her eyes, but it did nothing to dampen her smile, “I just didn’t want you to walk out there alone.” He said gently and at that, Hermione bit her lip looking down.

Oh, _Hell_ no.

“Stop it,” he told her sternly, “No crying or I swear - _don’t_ mess up your face.” He said and Hermione scowled at him, “You’re going to look like a disaster in the photos. Stop it.” 

"Then stop making me emotional!"

"I can't help it!" Draco said indignantly, "You didn't catch me crying at _my_ wedding-"

"Because it was at four in the morning, Draco!" She said and crossed her arms over her chest, "Besides, I'm not so sure you didn't. Harry couldn't look me in the eyes when I asked him." She told him smugly. Draco rolled his eyes. She had no proof either way. Hermione's smile wavered for a moment before sighing to look over her shoulder back the mirror. "You don't have to do this, Draco. There's a lot of people out there and I know aren't too fond of the attention-"

"You're thinking of Harry," Draco cut her off and Hermione raised an eyebrow. Granted, over the years Draco had developed a very similar aversion to the public as his husband. Maybe not nearly as bad, but... come on. He had a daughter now. He couldn't be bothered _every_ time he went out to get a cup of coffee. "Besides, if you don't want me to do it then maybe I should grab McGonagall..." he trailed off, letting a feral grin cross his face as Hermione flushed dark red, "By the way, do many people know about the time you called her 'mom' last year?" He asked. Hermione hit his arm.

"Are you trying to _blackmail_ me?"

"I thought it would be fitting given that was how our friendship started," he told her. Giving a slight laugh, Hermione shook her head before grinning at him. Rolling his eyes, Draco grabbed her arm and pulled her into a hug. "Technically, this is supposed to be from Molly, but we can also say it's from me." He told her and Hermione squeezed back tightly.

"It took me two hours to put this dress on because she kept hugging me." Hermione mumbled into his shoulder and after a few more seconds let go. "Alright," she said taking a deep breath as she nodded. "I... I think I'm ready. I am ready." She decided and Draco gave her an incredulous look.

"You're sure?" He asked and Hermione nodded. "Positive? No doubts?" He asked and Hermione narrowed her eyes, "Well, I had a thing planned in case you had cold feet," he told her with a small shrug, "You know, how you two have been through so much and always chose one another and blah, blah, blah." He said. Hermione laughed. "You and Ron never let me have my speeches." He shook his head at her and held out his arm, "Alright, fine. Let's go make this official after the _longest_ engagement ever-"

"Three years is a completely acceptable amount of time-"

"Horrendous. Absolutely unacceptable."

"As opposed to your ten-minute engagement?"

"It was thirty minutes and twenty-seven seconds, thank you very much," Draco told her. Hermione interlinked their arms, "I'm just saying. Why did you even need to date at all? You practically dated since you met," he grumbled as they left the room and made their way towards where Ginny was lining up the rest of the bridesmaids. Fleur and Gabrielle (who had still somehow gotten ready after class, apparently) were helping Andi put all the petals in her basket as they reminded her of the very important duties a flower girl entailed. Draco stopped walking.

"Draco?" Hermione frowned and tilted her head, "You know, _you're_ not allowed to have cold feet." She told him and Draco glanced up where the wedding party was and then squeezed Hermione's hand.

"I... just wanted to say, um," he said and shifted a bit as he turned to look at Hermione in the eyes. She waited. "You look beautiful," he said quietly. Hermione stared and then looked away. " _Don't cry-"_ He tried to remind her, but was cut off by Hermione practically shouting at him.

"Blackmailing you into being my friend was the smartest decision I've ever made."

Well.. that didn't seem right. Draco fixed her with a disbelieving look.

"You're literally receiving multiple medals and awards for-"

"Smartest decision I've ever made," Hermione interrupted him firmly. Draco swallowed. Alright then. He couldn't very well argue with the bride. "Come on," she whispered, "This kind of has been a long engagement. I'm ready for it to end." She said and Draco nodded.

"Let's go then," he said and tugged Hermione forward. "I promise I won't let you fall." He added and then considered, "...unless I trip you."

"You better not trip me."

"Eh, we'll see."

" _Draco-"_

* * *

It had been a bit shocking (to say the least) when Hermione and Ron announced their wedding would take place at Hogwarts. Despite all of the good memories interwoven into the walls and portraits... he still avoided certain parts. It was too much pain. Too many memories. If it wasn't for Harry then Draco wasn't sure he would have ever returned.

“That’s why,” Hermione admitted when he had asked her, “Our kids are going to go here one day. Harry teaches there. Maybe one day I will, I don’t know. Teddy and Andi will be going before you know it.” She told him and shook her head, “It was our home for so long… I don’t want the memories of that one battle to overshadow everything else. I’ll make good memories here until I barely remember the bad ones.” 

Draco had to admit... it was kind of a good plan. Even now... it was hard to see the courtyard as anything more than a wedding reception as Bill dragged Percy onto the dance floor while Fred and George loudly demanded a dance battle.

"So," Harry's voice came and Draco smiled a bit, "Sounds like our summer plans have been leaked."

"Hm," Draco said and tugged him over towards the wooden fold-out chairs. His hair was already messed up. Granted, that was mainly Sirius' fault for ruffling it as they left the Great Hall, but still, "Yeah, I'm pretty sure my mother told... everyone." Draco said and Harry fell into an empty seat beside him, "Andi says we are not allowed to name him Albus."

"You wouldn't have let me name him Albus anyways," Harry grumbled and Draco nodded. Absolutely correct. "We might not even be picking out a name. Andi was a bit of a coincidence," he mused and Draco nodded thoughtfully as he glanced at where his daughter was riding Padfoot around while still throwing petals from her basket.

Andi had been a... unique situation. Harry and Draco had absolutely no intention of having a child at all up until they met her. Usually, it was Harry who had a soft spot for orphans, and given that there were so many children orphaned during the war he made a point to visit as many as he could often. Draco was usually dragged along and forced to deal with (very) messy children bullying him into playing games for hours on end. He wasn't sure what initially drew him to Andi... according to her foster mother, they had absolutely no idea what happened to her. She hadn't spoken a word to anyone and there were no clues as to who her parents even were. They definitely hadn't known her name.

Being trained in the healing arts, Draco felt it was fine for him to just check on her. She had clearly been on the receiving end of a powerful memory charm... he suspected her parents might have been the one to put it on her. Maybe it was to protect her or erase trauma. He had never told anyone, but... there was... _something_ about her that almost felt familiar. Part of him couldn't help but wonder...

No. No, definitely not. That was... impossible. The _point_ was that Draco had decided to watch her for a few days to make sure the spell hadn't caused more damage than wiping her memories. They borrowed Ron's watch to help with the non-verbal thing and... yeah, by the end of the month she was pretty much theirs. Draco was a little annoyed he had accidentally adopted a child, but he had to admit Andi _was_ pretty great. It had been such a triumph when they first heard her talk... Now they couldn't seem to get her to stop.

"Well, we asked her if she liked being called Andi," Draco told Harry, "I don't think any child would agree to be Albus. You know, after the man who was _the_ worst," Draco said and Harry tilted his head, "I'm just saying. We wouldn't name our kid Tom."

"You cannot compare Dumbledore to _Voldemort_."

"I can. I did. I stand by it. How about Scorpius?"

"Not the star names again," Harry sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, "I know part of the reason you were so set on Andromeda was because you wanted to slip in the pureblood name," he added and Draco put a hand over his heart in feigned shock. Him? Being sneaky? Never. Granted, he did pull Dora aside to ask if she planned on using the name because 'I know Harry won't say no if I bring up Andromeda' but that was irrelevant. "Let's compromise. James Scorpius-"

"That does not go together... at all. Why are you so bad a naming things?" Draco asked him, "This is just like the time they asked you to name that new section of the library and you tried naming it after Cedric Diggory and Hagrid. Just pick one person, Harry. Just one. You don't have to fit an entire obituary in-"

"Andromeda is named after two people."

"I barely let you get away with that," Draco grumbled with a sigh, "And I think you made her to pretend to like it. Andromeda Rebeus." He shook his head, "I guess it isn't as terrible as some of your other suggestions," he admitted, inwardly smiling at the memory of Severus' face when Harry barked up _that_ particular tree. He kind of hoped he suggested it again given they were having a boy... it would be funny to see how exasperated his godfather got, "Of course, I suppose I could always change it like I did yours..." He teased. Harry closed his eyes, breathing out slowly.

"You're smart, you have the best laugh, you-"

"What?" Draco interrupted, a bit bewildered, "What are you doing right now?" Draco asked, poking Harry's shoulder. "Stop that."

"I'm trying this new thing. When you annoy me I'm going to say things I love about you so I won't _throttle_ you." Harry told him and Draco scoffed.

"Very sweet. I do think you underestimate my ability to annoy you though." He said and Harry rolled his eyes. Draco turned back to stare at the Teddy now playing hide-and-seek with Remus (who was doing a great job pretending not to see Teddy under a table).

"Moony," Sirius called (now back in human form), "I found him!" he said and lifted up Andi who gasped.

"I am _not_ Teddy!"

"Yes, you are!" Sirius told her, "I know you're just _pretending_ to be my grand-goddaughter," he informed her stoically. "Victoire, what do you think? Is this Teddy?" He asked and Draco watched in wry amusement as he practically tripped out from under the table. Remus snorted.

"Hi, Victoire!" Teddy said, waving at the other girl, "I got a new toy broom-"

"That's _my_ toy broom!" Andi said indignantly from Sirius' arms, "See? I'm not Teddy!" She added to him. Sirius put a hand over his chest in apology before placing her down. She wasted no time stealing Victoire from Teddy with a promise to braid her hair. Remus gave his son a sympathetic look before turning to give Draco accusing eyes. What? It wasn't his fault his daughter was the more charming of the bunch.

"Come on," Harry said, regaining Draco's attention by grabbing his hand, "Let's dance."

"Dance?" Draco repeated and Harry nodded, still pulling at him.

"Yeah, this is the same song from the Yule Ball, remember?" He asked. It was then that Draco _did_ recognize the tune... which was weird because Draco didn't think he even registered the song back then. It was even more surprising that Harry did, but he didn't argue. "I have to warn you, I've gotten much better over the years," Harry added. The need to throttle Draco must have passed then.

"Really?" Draco asked him, "Because I'm pretty sure you tripped me during the Ministry's award ceremony-"

"That was on purpose," Harry shrugged and Draco narrowed his eyes.

"I love your eyes, how excited you get by magic still, the way you look riding a broom - oh, I'm trying this new thing where I say things I love about you when you annoy me," he said when Harry raised an eyebrow, "This dork with bad hair was telling me about it-" he started, but was cut off by Harry stopping his smartass comments to put a hand on the side of Draco's jaw, kissing the words out of his mouth.

There was a small sigh from behind them.

”Not again.” 

Draco broke away to find Teddy staring at them with an air of exasperation. Andi shook her head and joined him with Victoire closely watching by her side.

”My mom said that's how babies are made,” she said solemnly and Andi scowled.

”Well, they promised not to name it Albus-”

”If that's how babies are made then my dads are having lots of babies,” Teddy added with a slow turn towards where Sirius only stuck out his tongue like the tyrant he was. Draco sighed and put his head on Harry’s shoulder.

”Nevermind, I hate children again,” he muttered and glanced over at them, "Go play somewhere else." He added and when nobody looked threatened scowled. Draco supposed it was a good thing they weren't afraid of them... but it was a little strange to go to the Ministry of Magic and have people cower at your name and then return home to have a six-year-old little girl demand to put purple lipstick on you. Similarly, Draco had seen Harry silence crowds of people with nothing more than a look only to argue with Teddy for two hours about eating mashed potatoes. It was a strange life to be sure.

"Gremlins," a voice said calmly, "Disperse."

Teddy gasped.

"UNCLE SEVERUS!"

Draco inwardly smiled as the three kids spun around with various levels of excitement to bother his godfather. Severus, for his part, seemed merely inconvenienced by the them as he flicked his wand with a levicorpus charm to send them floating away. From across the courtyard, Fleur gave a yell of alarm as she raced over to pluck her child from the air while Sirius and Dora rushed over to pretend and play volleyball with the other two.

"I didn't know you were here," Draco greeted brightly, letting his hand fall from Harry's shoulder to the side of his arm. "Have you seen Hermione and Ron?" He asked, nodding to where the pair were still dancing - or trying to at least. Ron kept making Hermione laugh for them to really stay in step. Severus gave a long suffering sigh.

"I did speak to them briefly," Severus said, looking annoyed by the memory of it. Draco made a note to ask if he got them a gift later. He dearly hoped that he did, "Longbottom is trying to talk to me again," he added, sounding devastated by the words. Draco's eyes drifted to where Neville and Ginny were currently helping Luna refill her bowls of various herbs to keep the wrackspurts and dabberblimps away...whatever those were, "Why are you not entertaining him?" Severus asked with a note of accusation. Harry chuckled.

"I'm going to show Hermione my dancing," he said as he patted Draco's arm in sympathy before racing over to ruin the married couple's first dance by cutting in. Draco sighed.

"Neville is a highly, _highly_ accomplished alchemist and herbologist as well as a professor at this school. You should be honored he comes to you for advice." He tried. Severus simply stared back in return. "St. Mungo's was short-staffed and asked me to help out. It's only for a few months and then I'll be back here to work with Neville again. I told him he could go to you regarding anything potion related-"

"So you have betrayed me. Again."

"Again-? Is this about the DADA job? Severus, _you_ were the one who gave the job to Harry!" Draco told him. Severus scowled in return. It had been a tragically funny situation (to Draco at least). Once Slughorn retired (again) then Hogwarts was without a potions master. Severus had been teaching DADA at the time and highly critical of who would be filling the position. McGonagall had suggested Harry serve in the role temporarily given that he had done pretty well on his potion N.E.W.Ts and was looking for a job.  


Severus flat out said that even he didn't hate their students that much and offered to retake his old position so that Harry could teach DADA instead... though Severus helped Harry out with DADA often enough and usually filled in whenever Harry took time off.  According to Neville, Severus had actually gotten to be a pretty popular teacher. Draco wasn't surprised. Once you took away the blatant favoritism towards Slytherin and abuse towards his students then you were left with a brilliant and exasperated man who was... very... very... truthful.

It was the school's favorite game to see famous Professor Potter get told off again and again by Professor Snape whenever anything happened. There was also a pattern of all the students 'mysteriously' getting blackmail on Harry, which usually involved his adventures during school. Draco's favorite so far was when a third-year claimed Harry shouldn't take away house points for dangerous activities because 'we all know about the troll, the stone, the car, the chamber, and - if I manage to perfect my wiggenweld potion - we'll be learning about you fighting a werewolf'.   


Severus claimed he definitely wasn't rewarding his students with such stories and Harry could not find a way to prove it.

"Betrayal is defined in many ways... your stupidity is one of them."

"Brave words to say when my mother is within earshot," Draco told him and Severus' eyes narrowed, "Let me guess, I can make it up to you by some favor...?"

"You're teaching potions for three weeks when you get back from St. Mungos," he nodded and Draco groaned. "Why are you whining? You'll be with your dreadful husband and subpar friends."

"Where are you going?" Draco asked him with a frowned and then scowled, "McGonagall gave you more vacation time, didn't she? Why do you get so much?"

"I'm likeable," Severus told him flatly, "Also, you have to do it because I'm your godfather and said so."

"Spending more time with Sirius, I see," Draco muttered and ran a hand over his face, "Or did my mother tell you to say that?"

"Both. We meet for tea to discuss how best to deal with you."

"Ha," Draco said - not entirely sure if that was a joke or not... probably not, actually. "Fine. Three weeks - and I get paid this time. I'm not a charity." He grumbled. Severus rolled his eyes, but merely nodded before walking off to talk to Ted. Draco shook his head before looking at the dance floor to see Harry's dance with Hermione had ended and he was now instead dancing with Ron (well... they were trying at least) while Hermione was dancing with Arthur. 

Smiling, he went over to where Fleur was teaching Victoire to braid her father's hair and held out his hand.

"For old time's sake?" He asked and Fleur grinned at him before calling Gabrielle over to take her place in using Bill as a lifesize doll.

The rest of the evening went by in what felt like minutes. He danced with Fleur... then Hermione... then Ginny challenged Fred and George to a dance-off, which McGonagall ended up judging. Molly gave a very sweet speech and Harry gave a very awkward speech. Draco's time to shine had also finally come.

"The kids went with Hagrid to the kitchens, right? Great," he said to the crowd, speaking into his wand, "When Hermione and Ron first got together, it was during the Battle of Hogwarts right before Harry decided to face Voldemort off in the Forbidden Forest. I was, understandably, furious by the fact I had absolutely no time to react to this information. However, I knew deep down I would get my chance someday to embarrass them fully and I believe that time is now... So, without further adieu... Ron... Hermione... what the Hell?" He asked and at Ron's face, pointed a finger, "No - _no_ , you gave Harry and I a whole speech about how exasperated you were that we took so long to date! Well, guess what? Fuck you. Six years was a long time? Boo hoo. You needed an entire _war_ to get you together - and it wasn't like neither of you knew! Harry and I may have taken some time to figure it out, but you two didn't get together because you were both _stubborn_. Hermione, you are my best friend. I love you. You know I do, but you literally _told_ Ron he should have asked you to the Yule Ball our fourth year. You called the man out and then had the _audacity_ to take that long to date him?"

"DON'T FORGET THE AMORTENTIA!" Harry called. Draco pointed to him.

"Yeah, there was a whole love potion that clearly smelled like the other person and you both knew this!"

"AND LAVENDER BROWN!"

"And Lavender Brown!"

"AND-"

"Harry, mate," Ron interrupted, "Shut up."

There was a long pause.

"...remember when we spent an entire war with me being a third-wheel?" Harry called and Draco raised a hand.

"You made the poor man third-wheel for an entire year," Draco said, shaking his head, "I'm half-convinced the reason this engagement was so long was because you both refused to admit you wanted to marry the other. That's the level of petty you both are." He said and Remus held up a hand from where he was at his table next to Sirius.

"I knew they would end up together during their third year!" He called and Sirius nodded from beside them.

"I also knew during your third year. I also knew about you and Harry during your third year," he added helpfully and Draco opened his mouth to respond, but apparently this turned into an invitation for everyone to announce when they knew Ron and Hermione would get married... general consensus was that everyone knew before Ron and Hermione did.

"I don't think this is technically a speech," Ron muttered, flushing a dark scarlet. Draco gave a pitying hum.

"So sad. Anyways, as revenge for my years of suffering, I plan to expose every single time I caught them checking the other one out. Hermione was actually first. It was during our fourth year-"

"DRACO MALFOY YOU SIT BACK DOWN THIS INSTANT!" Hermione choked and Draco grinned at her.

"-during the Quidditch World Cup. Ron was in this particularly tight muggle shirt and-"

"You're done. Sit down." Hermione said, face bright red as Ron put a hand on her elbow.

"Now wait a moment. We did ask him to speak," he said and Draco met Hermione's eyes... then slowly sat down.

"...Ron, I just want you to know that you didn't actually have a stain on your shirt that day." He said quickly and Hermione got up with her wand in hand. Draco, being the good Hermione-fearing man he was, fled the scene. She would be fine in a good ten minutes, but he wasn't quite interested in being hexed at the moment. Laughing manically, he ducked back into the castle towards the Great Hall. The place was completely empty even now that ceremonial portion of the event was done. Some of the decorations still stayed up - the castle glittering with gold and blue. The school tables were replaced with wooden pews and flowers. Draco aimlessly walked down the aisle where petals still sat before pausing next to the reserved section.

Luna had ended up doing the seating arrangement for the wedding. She had an uncanny ability to know where to best place everyone so that no fights broke out... she claimed the dingle frogs helped her. It had been a bit of a surprise to see she had left an empty seat in the reserved section.

"Oh, I thought Andromeda would like to come," Luna had explained, "She was close with Molly, wasn't she?"

Draco hadn't known what to say... but he did slip Dora the Resurrection Stone and based on the look on her face... Luna made the right call.

“I don’t remember you receiving an invite,” Draco said, turning away from the seats and walking towards the now empty end of the hall to where the sorting hat was placed idly on the stool... as if preparing for a new group of first-years to enter. He glanced around, making note of his own echoing footsteps and absence of even Filch. Draco bit his lip before picking it up. There were scorch marks on the side where Voldemort had tried to burn it, but ultimately the founders’ magic had protected it well. Taking one last stab towards Gryffindor’s courage he placed it on his head.

 _Ah,_ a voice said a few moments later, _you again._

 _Well, hello to you too,_ Draco grumbled, a bit bitterly as tried not to think about how many other heads this one, manky hat had been on. There was a low rumble from that hat that was either a chuckle of amusement or growl of irritation. _I just wanted to ask about my sorting._

_Still can’t accept it after all these years?_

_No,_ Draco said quickly and then wrung his hands together, _I just… want to know what exactly you saw that day to make you sort me in Gryffindor. Did it really outweigh all my Slytherin qualities?_

It wasn’t that Draco minded at this point. Gryffindor had, admittedly, been one of the best things to happen to him. He just didn’t understand what about him possessed the hat to choose what it did. Any bravery or chivalry he had displayed throughout the years had been learned behavior. Definitely not inherent.

 _Oh, no, no, no,_ the hat said and this time there _was_ definitely laughter. Draco frowned, _you should have been in Slytherin. Every inch of you belonged there._

 _What? Then why did you-? You said there was something you saw!_ Draco answered, outraged by the mere implication he had been duped, _something that was barely there, but could be nurtured into an incredible strength,_ he quoted in a high-pitched voice to mimic the hat.

 _That I did,_ the hat hummed, _I will be frank with you. It wasn’t courage, bravery, or nerve. That much was certain. I was quite surprised to learn you gained those attributes along the way,_ it added. Draco narrowed his eyes.

_Then what was it? And why Gryffindor if it wasn’t a Gryffindor trait?_

_Oh, I didn’t say it wasn’t a Gryffindor trait._

….Draco regretted putting on this stupid hat. What the _Hell_ was it trying to tell him? The hat sighed - possibly sensing Draco’s irritation.

 _You must remember Godric Gryffindor was my owner. I knew him well. There is one thing he had that not too many speak of. It is a trait both you and him share,_ the hat informed him solemnly. Draco tried not to roll his eyes.

_And that is?_

Silence followed. For a moment, Draco didn’t think he would get an answer.

 _The ability to change,_ it finally said, _and with that alone you were able to inspire courage and change in others._

“Draco?” 

Quickly, he yanked off the hat to spin around. Harry stood behind him, hands in the pockets of his robes.

“Hey,” he said and put the hat back on the stool. Harry peered curiously at it, eyes dancing in between Draco and the hat before meeting his eyes. “I was just checking in. Seeing if that thing still even worked.” He told him, stepping away from the stool. Harry raised an eyebrow.

“Oh, yeah?” He asked, “Did it say anything interesting?”

“Utter bollocks,” Draco told him, grabbing his hand, “Honestly, sorting ceremonies should just be flipping a coin at this point,” he told him and Harry grinned, letting Draco lead him back down the Great Hall. “Though, I am willing to be ten galleons that Teddy is going to be a Ravenclaw.”

“No way,” Harry objected, “A Hufflepuff. Like Tonks.” He reasoned. Draco shook his head. He saw that kid reading about _caterpillars_ of all things underneath the reception table earlier. That was a goddamn Ravenclaw. “Bet you ten galleons it’s Hufflepuff and Andi a Gryffindor."

"Absolutely not," Draco said and Harry narrowed his eyes, "She's a Slytherin-"

"We don't even know if she would be considered a pureblood!"

"Irrelevant. I know a Slytherin when I see one. She tricked you into feeding her pancakes for dinner last week. Slytherin." He said and Harry stepped in front of him, jutting a single finger into his chest.

" _You_ trick a lot of people into doing many things and were put into Gryffindor," Harry told him smugly. Draco scowled. He considered telling Harry what the hat had said... but decided against it. He would just steal his money instead. "Fifty galleons." He decided.

“Ha,” Draco said, flicking his wand to the doors opened for them, “Don’t be coy. Make it a hundred.”

“I mean, it hardly matters given that we have a joint bank account-”

“Backing out?”

“...fine. Two hundred then," Harry said haughtily. Draco made a note of put this memory in their pensieve later. Harry very conveniently 'forgot' many of the bets they had after he lost them. Draco would ensure he got his two hundred galleons. He wondered idly if Fleur planned on sending Victoire to Beauxbatons or Hogwarts. He should ask... then add her to the house betting board. "I wish we could get married again," Harry said suddenly.

Draco blinked.

"You... do?" He asked and felt a stab of panic, "I didn't think you would like something like this. I really would have been fine with waiting-"

"No," Harry snorted, "Our wedding was brilliant. I just mean I wish we could do it again. Exactly the same. Just... again." He said with a shrug. Draco tilted his head, trying to decide how he felt about this revelation.

"Are you referring to the actual wedding or the small hiatus we took afterwards?"

"Well, both," Harry admitted, "But I'm just saying if you wanted to go down to the courthouse and do it again, I would," he said. Draco stopped walking and looked at him. Harry stared back, clearly missing the implication. "...what?"

"Do you want to do that?"

"What? Right now?" Harry asked, crossing his arms over his chest as he looked Draco up and down, "Seems a bit rude to on Ron and Hermione's wedding day." He pointed out. Draco scoffed. Coward.

"They're leaving for their honeymoon. Besides, they don't have to know," Draco said with a shrug, "We wouldn't change our anniversary or anything... but I guess if you're scared-"

"This is the second time you've goaded me into marrying you."

"Does that mean it's working?" Draco asked, fighting back a grin. It most definitely was. He could tell by the look in Harry's eyes.

"Andi would like it," he admitted and Draco nodded. She did enjoy being a flower girl. Draco had no doubts she would enjoy throwing petals at them as they stood in the stuffy Ministry office while they tortured the poor soul tasked with officiating the whole thing. Was this even technically legal? Renewing vows were a thing, but he wasn't sure they could just go get married again...

...eh. They killed Voldemort. Exceptions could be made.

"Alright," Harry said, drawing Draco from his thoughts, "You've convinced me. Hopefully, Theo finds out so that his entire stupid lesson on our wedding is useless." He said, looking far too pleased by that than the fact he was getting married (again) to someone as great as Draco. He supposed he would let it slide this time... Theo did sound like he enjoyed being a nightmare of a professor. "Just one condition?"

"There are _conditions?_ You know, we are already married-"

"Tell me what our legal names are," Harry said and Draco laughed at him, "At least let me know what mine is!" He said indignantly, " _Draco-"_

"You'll find out when we sign our new marriage certificate," he mused and Harry's scowl deepened. "Maybe we can change it there too if you don't like it... I suppose it would make sense for us to have the same surname," he admitted. Harry opened his mouth - a question clearly on his lips before something seemed to click into place and he hit Draco's shoulder.

"Tell me you didn't _switch_ our last names!"

Draco stared back solemnly. As an answer, he simply grabbed Harry's left hand so that Umbridge's _I will not tell lies_ , were easily read. Harry's eyes narrowed.

"Sometimes your staff meetings are really long," Draco told him helplessly, "I get bored."

"I've changed my mind. I don't want to marry you again." Harry said, wrinkling his nose. "What the Hell is Andi's last name then? No. Don't tell me," he seethed and then started muttering under his breath. "I love you, I love you, I love you..."

Draco couldn't be sure what about Harry being wildly annoyed with Draco messing with him made him feel so ridiculously soft, but... part of him felt a wave of fondness as they went through the doors to look at where the sorting hat was still sitting innocently by. He could hear people cheering Ron and Hermione's name - a sign he probably needed to get back to see them off. It was strange actually. To know the hat's logic now. For years he wondered what Slytherin trait he had lacked and now he had his answer... None. He could have went to Slytherin. He could have belonged there. His life could have been completely different.

And maybe Draco had the ability to change, but did that really warrant sending him to Gryffindor? For that one thing?

No. In the end, his fate - his entire _life_ had been left up to a hat's whimsy decision making rather than any quality he actually possessed.

The thought should make him furious. Draco couldn't find it within him to care much as he stood frozen in the doorway while Harry continued grousing and Ron and Hermione's wedding clattered about in the background - filled with everyone he loved. A lump formed in his throat. Looking over his shoulder to make sure Harry couldn't hear him, he let his magic reach out... gently nudging the hat to life despite being on the opposite end of the room.

 _I am meant for greater things that arguing with you,_ _Malfoy...or Potter or whatever you are_ , the hat groused. Draco's lips twitched.

"Thank you," he said softly and shut the door behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> soooo it's weird to discuss canon vs. non-canon things within a fanfic, but I figured I would clear up that one comment made about Andi bc I spent a lot of time wondering if I should leave that in, but figured I would let you in on some of my OG draft stuff.
> 
> Basically, I had considered about playing around with the Cursed Child content. I wasn't a huge fan of that book tbh (different TED talk, but scorbus was super sweet... or it would have been. Whatever, JKR) BUT I did think it would be interesting to include Draco learning about Delphini given that he was 'close' with Bellatrix at the time. In the end, I took it out because there was already so much happening and this fic really did get super long... plus, like, nobody really considers that book canon anyways lol. However, all I really did was cut it out so one could argue that they're just deleted scenes and still happened. There was a explanation for why Bellatrix was at the Astronomy Tower battle and everything (given she missed it the books since she was pregnant/giving birth and I had her there), where she was during the war, Bellatrix having (1) moment of humanity regarding her daughter, and Draco developing a small attachment to baby Delphi, which comes into play when he wonders what happened to her after the war.
> 
> All of this to say... in this chapter he's wondering if Andi was originally Delphi. Now, since I didn't include any of this in the fic the answer can definitely be no, but if you're wondering my original intention... yep. I just think it's an interesting concept. Especially considering that in the Cursed Child Delphi was just so evil bc of her evil blood and horrible upbringing, yadda, yadda. Honestly, it would be FAR more interesting to have made her a girl raised by good people who learned her parents were horrible villains and see how she coped with that while Scorpius and Albus fell in love. That's the book we deserved and you can quote me on that. 
> 
> On a different note... we're done. Wild. Hopefully I distracted you a bit from 2020 with this! I know I distracted myself with it lol. I hope everyone has a safe and happy New Year! ❤️
> 
> -CF


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